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Scheduler Algorithms

for MU-MIMO

By

Wissam Moustafa and Richard Mugisha

Department of Electrical and Information Technology


Faculty of Engineering, LTH, Lund University
SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden

2017
Abstract
In multi-user multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO), the
complexity of the base-station scheduler has increased further compared to
single-user multiple input multiple output (SU-MIMO). The scheduler must
understand if several users can be spatially multiplexed in the same time-
frequency resource. One way to spatially separate users is through
beamforming with sufficiently many antennas.
In this thesis work, two downlink beamforming algorithms for MU-
MIMO are studied: The first algorithm implements precoding without
considering inter-cell interference (ICI). The second one considers it and
attempts to mitigate or null transmissions in the direction of user
equipments (UEs) in other cells. The two algorithms are evaluated in SU-
MIMO and MU-MIMO setups operating in time division duplex (TDD)
mode and serving with single and dual-antenna terminals. Full-Buffer (FB)
and file transfer protocol (FTP) data traffic profiles are studied.
Additionally, various UE mobility patterns, UE transmit antenna topologies,
sounding reference signal (SRS) periodicity configurations, and uniform
linear array (ULA) topologies are considered. Simulations have been
performed using a system level simulation framework developed by
Ericsson AB.
Another important part of this thesis work is the functional verification
of this simulation framework, which at the time of writing is still
undergoing development.
Our simulation results show that in SU-MIMO, the second algorithm,
which considers ICI, outperforms the first one for FB traffic profile and all
UE speeds, but not for FTP traffic profile and medium (30 km/h) or high
(60 km/h) UE speeds. In this case, the first algorithm, which does not
consider ICI, can be used with advantage. In MU-MIMO, cell downlink
throughput gains are observed for the second algorithm over the first one for
low and medium system loads (number of users). For both algorithms, the
cell throughput is observed to decrease with increasing UE speed and
sounding periodicity.

i
Acknowledgments
It is great honor and pleasure for us to express our deepest gratitude to
our supervisor Fredrik Tufvesson and examiner Fredrik Rusek, of the
Department of Electrical and Information Technology, Lund University, for
their valuable supervision and guidance throughout the whole study. Special
acknowledgement is extended to our co-supervisors Jose Flordelis of the
Department of Electrical and Information Technology, Lund University, and
José María García Perera of Ericsson AB, for their valuable assistance,
motivation, and guidance throughout the thesis. Our sincere gratitude to
Ericsson AB, Lund Branch for their facilitation in providing office space,
data and a great team of professionals who assisted us at every chance they
got. Also, we are profoundly grateful to the Swedish Institute for awarding
us full-time scholarships to pursue our master degrees. Last but not least, we
would like to thank our families and friends in Syria, Rwanda and Sweden
for all the love and support.

Wissam Moustafa, Lund, June 2017


Richard Mugisha, Lund, June 2017

ii
Contents
Abstract .......................................................................................................... i
Acknowledgments ......................................................................................... ii
Contents ........................................................................................................iii
Preface.......................................................................................................... vii
List of tables ................................................................................................. xii
List of acronyms .......................................................................................... xiii
Popular Science Summary ............................................................................ xv
1. Introduction........................................................................................... 1
Background and motivation .......................................................... 1
Project aims and main challenges ................................................. 2
Approach and methodology .......................................................... 4
Previous related work ................................................................... 5
Limitations ..................................................................................... 7
Thesis outline ................................................................................ 7
2. Background Theory ............................................................................... 9
The 3GPP standards .................................................................... 10
2.1.1. Frame structure ................................................................... 11
2.1.2. Physical resource block ....................................................... 12
2.1.3. Concept of antenna ports in LTE (Downlink)....................... 14
2.1.4. Concept of antenna ports in LTE (Uplink) ........................... 15
2.1.5. Transmission modes in LTE ................................................. 17
2.1.6. Beamforming ....................................................................... 18
Multi-user Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) ............ 19
2.2.1. System model ...................................................................... 20

iii
2.2.2. Linear precoding in MU-MIMO ........................................... 21
Scheduling in LTE ......................................................................... 22
2.3.1. Scheduling strategies........................................................... 22
2.3.2. Downlink packet scheduling in LTE ..................................... 22
2.3.3. Downlink (DL) resource allocation ...................................... 25
3. Simulation Framework ........................................................................ 29
Channel model and environment................................................ 29
3.1.1. Channel model..................................................................... 29
3.1.2. Environment ........................................................................ 31
Scenario setup ............................................................................. 32
3.2.1. System cell deployment ...................................................... 32
3.2.2. System configurations parameters ..................................... 32
Scheduler algorithms for MU-MIMO .......................................... 32
Test cases .................................................................................... 34
4. Results and Discussion ........................................................................ 37
SU-MIMO (FTP traffic profile and 8 BS antenna elements) ........ 38
4.1.1. SU-MIMO @8 BS antenna elements @5 ms SRS periodicity:
2SRS UE, 1SRSAS UE, 1SRSWOAS UE ................................................... 40
4.1.2. SU-MIMO @8 BS antenna elements @10 ms SRS periodicity:
2SRS UE, 1SRSAS UE, 1SRSWOAS UE ................................................... 44
4.1.3. SU-MIMO @8 BS antenna elements @20 ms SRS periodicity:
2SRS UE, 1SRSAS UE, 1SRSWOAS UE ................................................... 48
SU-MIMO (Full-Buffer traffic profile and 64 BS antenna elements)
52
4.2.1. SU-MIMO @64 BS antenna elements @5 ms SRS periodicity:
2SRS UE, 1SRSAS UE, 1SRSWOAS UE ................................................... 53

iv
4.2.2. SU-MIMO @64 BS antenna elements @10 ms SRS
periodicity: 2SRS UE, 1SRSAS UE, 1SRSWOAS UE ................................ 57
4.2.3. SU-MIMO @64 BS antenna elements @20 ms SRS
periodicity: 2SRS UE, 1SRSAS UE, 1SRSWOAS UE ................................ 61
MU-MIMO (Full-Buffer traffic profile and 64 BS antennas
elements)................................................................................................. 66
4.3.1. MU-MIMO @64 BS antenna elements @2 SRS UE, UE speed:
3 km/h, Sounding periodicity: 5 ms..................................................... 66
4.3.2. MU-MIMO @64 BS antenna elements @2 SRS UE, UE speed:
30 km/h, Sounding periodicity: 5 ms................................................... 68
Comparative analysis................................................................... 70
4.4.1. SU-MIMO (8 BS antenna elements and FTP traffic profile). 71
4.4.2. SU-MIMO (64 BS antenna elements and Full-Buffer traffic
profile) 73
4.4.3. SU-MIMO vs. MU-MIMO (64 BS antenna elements and Full-
Buffer traffic profile)............................................................................ 75
5. Conclusions.......................................................................................... 77
SU-MIMO (FTP)............................................................................ 77
SU-MIMO (Full-Buffer) ................................................................ 77
MU-MIMO (Full-Buffer) ............................................................... 78
6. Future work ......................................................................................... 79
References ................................................................................................... 80
Appendices .................................................................................................. 83
Appendix 2.A: Uplink-downlink configurations for TDD radio frame [17]
................................................................................................................. 83
Appendix 2.B: Transmission mode 8 (TM-8) in LTE (Downlink) .............. 83
i. Single antenna port transmission................................................ 83
ii. Transmit Diversity ....................................................................... 84
v
iii. Dual layer Beamforming .............................................................. 85

vi
Preface
In this thesis work, all parts have been done by both authors together.

vii
List of figures
Figure 1.1: Scheduler algorithms challenges (SU-MIMO/MU-MIMO) .......... 2
Figure 1.2: Flow diagram of the methodology .............................................. 4
Figure 2.1: Benefits of MIMO [16]................................................................. 9
Figure 2.2: Downlink physical channel processing [17] .............................. 10
Figure 2.3: Uplink physical channel processing [17] ................................... 11
Figure 2.4: Frame structure type 2 (switch-point periodicity = 5ms) [17] .. 12
Figure 2.5: Physical resource block (Normal cyclic prefix) [16]................... 13
Figure 2.6: Two-antenna port configuration for CRS (Normal cyclic prefix)
[17] .............................................................................................................. 15
Figure 2.7: Antenna port configuration for UE-specific reference signals,
antenna ports 7 and 8 (Normal cyclic prefix) [17]....................................... 15
Figure 2.8: DM-RS(UL) structure (Normal cyclic prefix) [16], [20], [21], [22] 16
Figure 2.9: Full bandwidth (96 PRBs) SRS configuration and 5 ms SRS
(sounding) periodicity ................................................................................. 17
Figure 2.10: Sub-bands (24 PRBs) SRS configuration and 5 ms SRS
(sounding) periodicity ................................................................................. 17
Figure 2.11: Illustration of beamforming (BS side) [16] .............................. 19
Figure 2.12: Illustartion of SU-MIMO (left), and MU-MIMO (right) [1] ...... 19
Figure 2.13: System model .......................................................................... 20
Figure 2.14: Time-Frequency structure of the LTE downlink subframe
(example with 3 OFDM symbols dedicated to control channels) [27] ........ 23
Figure 2.15: DL resource allocation type 0 [28] .......................................... 26
Figure 2.16: DL SU-MIMO scheduling vs DL MU-MIMO scheduling ........... 27
Figure 3.1: Simulation framework ............................................................... 29
Figure 3.2: Scheduler algorithms for MU-MIMO ........................................ 33
Figure 3.3: (a) 2SRS UE, (b) 1SRSAS UE, (c) 1SRSWOAS UE ......................... 35
Figure 3.4: 1x4x2 ULA topology................................................................... 35
Figure 3.5: 4x8x2 ULA topology................................................................... 36
Figure 4.1: Workflow using the system level simulator .............................. 37
Figure 4.2: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_8 BS antenna
elements @2SRS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @FTP ...................................... 40
Figure 4.3: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_8 BS antenna
elements @1SRSAS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @FTP.................................. 40
viii
Figure 4.4: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_8 BS antenna
elements @1SRSWOAS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @FTP ........................... 41
Figure 4.5: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_8 BS antenna elements @2SRS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @FTP ... 42
Figure 4.6: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_8 BS antenna elements @1SRSAS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @FTP 42
Figure 4.7: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_8 BS antenna elements @1SRSWOAS UE @5ms SRS periodicity
@FTP ........................................................................................................... 43
Figure 4.8: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_8 BS antenna
elements @2SRS UE @10ms SRS periodicity @FTP .................................... 44
Figure 4.9: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_8 BS antenna
elements @1SRSAS UE @10ms SRS periodicity @FTP................................ 44
Figure 4.10: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_8 BS antenna
elements @1SRSWOAS UE @10ms SRS periodicity @FTP ......................... 45
Figure 4.11: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_8 BS antenna elements @2SRS UE @10ms SRS periodicity @FTP . 46
Figure 4.12: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_8 BS antenna elements @1SRSAS UE @10ms SRS periodicity @FTP
..................................................................................................................... 46
Figure 4.13: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_8 BS antenna elements @1SRSWOAS UE @10ms SRS periodicity
@FTP ........................................................................................................... 47
Figure 4.14: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_8 BS antenna
elements @2SRS UE @20ms SRS periodicity @FTP .................................... 48
Figure 4.15: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_8 BS antenna
elements @1SRSAS UE @20ms SRS periodicity @FTP................................ 48
Figure 4.16: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_8 BS antenna
elements @1SRSWOAS UE @20ms SRS periodicity @FTP ......................... 49
Figure 4.17: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_8 BS antenna elements @2SRS UE @20ms SRS periodicity @FTP . 50
Figure 4.18: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_8 BS antenna elements @1SRSAS UE @20ms SRS periodicity @FTP
..................................................................................................................... 50
ix
Figure 4.19: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_8 BS antenna elements @1SRSWOAS UE @20ms SRS periodicity
@FTP ........................................................................................................... 51
Figure 4.20: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_64 BS antenna
elements @2SRS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer .......................... 53
Figure 4.21: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_64 BS antenna
elements @1SRSAS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer ...................... 53
Figure 4.22: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_64 BS antenna
elements @1SRSWOAS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer ................ 54
Figure 4.23: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_64 BS antenna elements @2SRS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @Full-
Buffer ........................................................................................................... 55
Figure 4.24: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_64 BS antenna elements @1SRSAS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @Full-
Buffer ........................................................................................................... 55
Figure 4.25: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_64 BS antenna elements @1SRSWOAS UE @5ms SRS periodicity
@Full-Buffer ................................................................................................ 56
Figure 4.26: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_64 BS antenna
elements @2SRS UE @10 ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer........................ 57
Figure 4.27: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_64 BS antenna
elements @1SRSAS UE @10 ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer ................... 57
Figure 4.28: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_64 BS antenna
elements @1SRSWOAS UE @10 ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer ............. 58
Figure 4.29: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_64 BS antenna elements @2SRS UE @10ms SRS periodicity @Full-
Buffer ........................................................................................................... 59
Figure 4.30: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_64 BS antenna elements @1SRSAS UE @10ms SRS periodicity
@Full-Buffer ................................................................................................ 59
Figure 4.31: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_64 BS antenna elements @1SRSWOAS UE @10ms SRS periodicity
@Full-Buffer ................................................................................................ 60

x
Figure 4.32: Average downlink throughput/Cell @SU-MIMO_64 BS antenna
elements @2SRS UE @20 ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer........................ 61
Figure 4.33: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_64 BS antenna
elements @1SRSAS UE @20 ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer ................... 62
Figure 4.34: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_64 BS antenna
elements @1SRSWOAS UE @20 ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer ............. 62
Figure 4.35: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_64 BS antenna elements @2SRS UE @20ms SRS periodicity @Full-
Buffer ........................................................................................................... 63
Figure 4.36: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_64 BS antenna elements @1SRSAS UE @20ms SRS periodicity
@Full-Buffer ................................................................................................ 64
Figure 4.37: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_64 BS antenna elements @1SRSWOAS UE @20ms SRS periodicity
@Full-Buffer ................................................................................................ 64
Figure 4.38: Average downlink throughput/cell @MU-MIMO @3 km/h
@2SRS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer .......................................... 67
Figure 4.39: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @MU-
MIMO @3 km/h @2SRS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer ............... 68
Figure 4.40: Average downlink throughput/cell @MU-MIMO @30 km/h
@2SRS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer .......................................... 69
Figure 4.41: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @MU-
MIMO @30 km/h @2SRS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer ............. 70

xi
List of tables
Table 2.1: Physical resource blocks vs system bandwidth [16]................... 14
Table 2.2: Antenna ports and their respective downlink reference signals
[17] .............................................................................................................. 14
Table 2.3: Antenna ports for different physical channels and signals [17] . 16
Table 2.4: Transmission mode 8 [19] .......................................................... 18
Table 2.5: Basic PUSCH transmission modes [19] ....................................... 18
Table 2.6: Supported DCI formats in REL. 8–11 [28] ................................... 24
Table 2.7: DL resource allocation Type 0 with DCI formats 2/2A/2B/2C/2D
[28] .............................................................................................................. 25
Table 3.1: 2D SCM parameters [25] ............................................................ 30
Table 3.2: 3D SCM parameters [23], [24] .................................................... 30
Table 3.3: Urban macro cell environment parameters [25]........................ 31
Table 3.4: System cell deployment parameters .......................................... 32
Table 3.5: System configurations parameters............................................. 32
Table 3.6: Test cases’ parameters ............................................................... 34
Table 4.1: Simulation parameters for SU-MIMO with FTP traffic profile and
8 BS antenna elements (BSULA topology: 1x4x2) ....................................... 39
Table 4.2: Simulation parameters for SU-MIMO with Full-Buffer traffic
profile and 64 BS antennas elements (BSULA topology: 4x8x2) ................. 52
Table 4.3: Simulation parameters for MU-MIMO with Full-Buffer traffic
profile and 64 BS antennas elements (BSULA topology: 4x8x2) ................. 66
Table 4.4: Summary (Fig. 4.2, Fig. 4.3, and Fig. 4.4) .................................... 71
Table 4.5: Summary (Fig. 4.8, Fig. 4.9, and Fig. 4.10) .................................. 71
Table 4.6: Summary (Fig. 4.14, Fig. 4.15, and Fig. 4.16) .............................. 72
Table 4.7: Summary (Fig. 4.20, Fig. 4.21, and Fig. 4.22) .............................. 73
Table 4.8: Summary (Fig. 4.26, Fig. 4.27, and Fig. 4.28) .............................. 73
Table 4.9: Summary (Fig. 4.32, Fig. 4.33, and Fig. 4.34) .............................. 74
Table 4.10: Summary (Fig. 4.20, Fig. 4.38, and Fig. 4.40) ............................ 75

xii
List of acronyms
 2D Two-Dimensional
 3D Three-Dimensional
 3GPP Third-Generation Partnership Project
 BLER Block Error Rate
 BS Base Station
 CP Cyclic Prefix
 CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check
 CRS Cell-specific Reference Signals
 CSI Channel State Information
 CSI-RS CSI Reference Signals
 DCI Downlink Control Information
 DL Downlink
 DM-RS(DL) Downlink Demodulation Reference Signals
 DM-RS(UL) Uplink Demodulation Reference Signals
 FDD Frequency Division Duplex
 FTP File Transfer Protocol
 GSM Global System for Mobile communication
 HARQ Hybrid ARQ
 HSPA High Speed Packet Access
 ICI Inter-Cell Interference
 ITU International Telecommunication Union
 LAA Licensed Assisted Access
 LTE Long Term Evolution
 MCS Modulation Coding Scheme
 MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output
 MMSE Minimum Mean Square Error
 MU-MIMO Multi-User MIMO
xiii
 OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
 PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel
 PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel
 PDCSH Physical Downlink Shared Channel
 PF Proportional Fair
 PRB Physical Resource Block
 PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel
 PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel
 QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
 QoS Quality of Service
 QPSK Quadrature Phase Shift Keying
 RBG Resource Block Group
 RR Round Robin
 SC-FDMA Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple
Access
 SCM Spatial Channel Model
 SINR Signal to Interference Noise Ratio
 SRS Sounding Reference Signal
 SU-MIMO Single-User MIMO
 TDD Time Division Duplex
 TTI Transmission Time Interval
 UE User Equipment
 UL Uplink
 ULA Uniform Linear Array
 WCDMA Wide Band Code Division Multiple Access
 ZF Zero Forcing

xiv
Popular Science Summary
Scheduling in modern wireless standards, e.g., 3G, 4G and future 5G,
can be defined as the task of allocating time and frequency resources by the
base station (BS) to each user equipment (UE) that wants to engage in
communication. Resources are allocated every transmission time interval
(TTI), which is typically one millisecond. There exist both uplink (from the
UEs to the BS) and downlink (from the BS to the UEs) resource schedulers
implemented in the e-Node B, i.e., the base station (BS) in Long Term
Evolution (LTE).
The aim of this thesis work is to study how various communication
techniques proposed for 5G can increase the overall system throughput of
the downlink (DL) when a realistic resource scheduler is used. In particular,
we consider: (i) Beamforming, (ii) Multi-user multiple input multiple output
(MU-MIMO), and (iii) Inter-cell interference (ICI) mitigation.
Beamforming can be achieved by deploying a large number of antenna
elements at the BS with the aim of increasing the signal to interference
noise ratio (SINR) towards the UE. Contrary to single-user multiple input
multiple output (SU-MIMO), in MU-MIMO more than one UE are
scheduled for transmissions in the same time-frequency resource; this is
possible by judiciously pairing various UEs which are spatially sufficiently
separated (according to some metric that we will define later). ICI
mitigation can be achieved by means of proper precoding at BS where the
precoder attempts to mitigate the interfering signal from BS towards UEs
belonging to neighboring cells.
In this thesis work, we investigate the performance of two scheduler
algorithms for MU-MIMO, using SU-MIMO as baseline. The first
algorithm does not consider ICI while the second one does. Dual layer
beamforming (that is, two independent data streams are transmitted to each
UE) and time division duplex (TDD) are assumed. In TDD mode the BS
acquires the channel information from sounding reference signals (SRS)
transmitted in the uplink (UL) and, by virtue of channel reciprocity, reuses
the so-obtained channel information in the downlink.
The performance evaluation of the two algorithms is based on the
following parameters: UE Traffic profile, UE speed, SRS UL antenna
configuration, SRS parameters, and BS antenna topology.
 UE speed includes 3,30, and 60 km/h.

xv
 UE traffic profile includes full-buffer (FB) and file transfer protocol
(FTP). With FB traffic profile, UEs send/receive data to/from the
BS all the time, while this is not the case in the FTP traffic profile
case. Some examples of FTP traffic profiles may include chatty,
video, VoIP, web, etc.
 SRS UL antenna configuration includes: (i) Two SRS, in which
each UE sends two SRS to the BS from two antennas, (ii) one SRS
with antenna selection, in which each UE alternately sends one SRS
to the BS from each of two antennas, and (iii) one SRS without
antenna selection, in which each UE sends one SRS to the BS from
only one antenna. For two SRS UE case (note that in the downlink
two layers, and hence two UE antennas, are always used).
 SRS parameters include SRS bandwidth and SRS periodicity. In
this thesis work, full-bandwidth SRS (20 MHz) with various SRS
periodicities such as 5 ms, 10 ms, 20 ms are considered.
 BS antenna topology includes 8 and 64 antenna elements at the BS.
The main result of this thesis work is that in both SU-MIMO and MU-
MIMO with FB traffic profile, it is better to use the second algorithm which
considers ICI rather than the first one which does not. However, with FTP
traffic profile, this is not always the case.

xvi
1. Introduction
This chapter is organized into six sections: Background and motivation,
project aims and main challenges, approach and methodology, previous
related work, limitations, and thesis outline.

Background and motivation


Scheduling in modern wireless standards, e.g., 3G, 4G and future 5G,
can be defined as the task of allocating time and frequency resources by the
base station (BS) to each user equipment (UE) that wants to engage in
communication.
In multi-user multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO), the
complexity of the base station (BS) scheduler has increased compared to
single-user multiple input multiple output (SU-MIMO). It must understand
if several users can be spatially multiplexed by using the same time-
frequency resources for these different users. One way to determine if
several users are spatially separated and co-scheduled using the same time-
frequency resources is through a beamformed system with sufficient
antennas.
The scheduler algorithm should be very efficient so that it can serve as
much user equipments (UEs) as possible and provide good cell throughput
by sharing all the available time-frequency resources with different UEs.
Hence, there is a need to design a scheduler which is optimized so that:
 The available time-frequency resources are utilized and assigned to
maximize the cell data throughput (no wastage of resources).
 More UEs are scheduled within the same transmission time interval
(TTI), while maintaining the block error rate (BLER) target.
 UE specific quality of service (QoS) is possible, i.e. all the UEs in
the cell are given a chance to be scheduled according to its grade of
service.

1
Project aims and main challenges
The main objective of this thesis work is to analyze and evaluate the
advantages and drawbacks of two MU-MIMO scheduler algorithms, in
various BS and UE configurations, with the main objective of maximizing
the cell throughput of the system. Later, performance comparisons of MU-
MIMO against SU-MIMO are carried out by setting SU-MIMO as a
baseline.

System cell Channel model BS ULA


depolyment & Environment topology

UE Traffic Scheduler algorithms


SRS Parameters
model (SU-MIMO/MU-MIMO)

SRS
UE mobility
Configuration

Figure 1.1: Scheduler algorithms challenges (SU-MIMO/MU-MIMO)


As shown in Fig.1.1, to assess the performance of the scheduler
algorithms for both SU-MIMO and MU-MIMO, the following inputs are
needed:
 Channel model: The channel model includes the two dimensional
(2D) and three dimensional (3D) spatial channel models (SCM),
which are used with 8 and 64 antenna elements at the BS,
respectively.
 Environment: The simulation environment can be broadly classified
as suburban-macro, urban-macro, and urban-micro. In this thesis
work, we use only urban-macro.

2
 System cell deployment: The system deployment includes the cell
layout, the number of sites, the number of sectors/cells per site and
the number of users per sector/cell.
 UE traffic model: The UE traffic model includes full-buffer (FB)
and file transfer protocol (FTP) traffic profiles. FTP traffic is a kind
of bursty traffic.
 UE mobility: The UE mobility refers to the users’ speed e.g., 3
km/h, 30 km/h, 60 km/h, etc.
 SRS UL antenna configuration: The SRS UL antenna configuration
includes UE with two simultaneous SRS transmission (2 SRS UE),
UE with one SRS transmission with antenna selection/switching (1
SRSAS UE) and UE with one SRS transmission without antenna
selection/switching (1 SRSWOAS UE).
 SRS parameters: The SRS parameters include both full-bandwidth
and sub-bands SRS configurations with different SRS periodicity
e.g. 5 ms, 10 ms, 20 ms, etc.
 BSULA topology: The base station uniform linear array (BSULA)
includes a BS with 8 and 64 antenna elements.
A main challenge of this thesis work was to verify the correct
implementation of the system simulator functionalities (verification of the
system simulator). Some important issues were found during our thesis
work, and those were reported to Ericsson AB and investigations are
ongoing.

3
Approach and methodology
This thesis work was carried out through the following steps as
illustrated in Fig. 1.2:

Figure 1.2: Flow diagram of the methodology


a. This thesis work is based on the 3GPP standards with emphasis on
TDD and Transmission mode 8 (TM-8) in LTE.
b. A deep analysis of the used scheduler algorithms for both SU-
MIMO and MU-MIMO is needed since the overall system
performance is mainly based on them.
c. The system level simulator is used to simulate the behavior of real
radio networks such as GSM, WCDMA, LTE, etc. In this case,
there is no need to build a physical radio network in advance which
is an advantage in terms of adjustments/flexibility, time, and costs.

4
d. Building and preparing the simulation environment for different test
cases requires some input parameters from the e-Node B and UEs
as well as the channel.
e. Verify and evaluate the performance by simulating the algorithms
for different scenarios as mentioned in Section 1.2.
f. Analyze the simulation results as a function of the number of UEs
that are scheduled, and provide some recommendations based on
the performance.

Previous related work


LTE has been developed by the Third-Generation Partnership Project
(3GPP) and was adopted to be the promising broadband technology for 4G
and future 5G mobile standards to replace both GSM (2G) and
WCDMA/HSPA (3G) standards. Initially, the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) specifies LTE data rates to be up to
100Mbps and 1Gbps in high and low mobility applications, respectively, for
fourth generation (4G) mobile communication systems [1].
To meet those requirements, SU-MIMO and MU-MIMO schemes are
used in LTE technology. The only difference between those two is that in
the latter case, the e-Node B in LTE (the BS) sends independent data
streams to multiple users simultaneously in the same time-frequency
resources, while in the former case, each user is allocated by the BS its own
time-frequency resources. MU-MIMO can be achieved by spatially
separating multiple users.
Different multi-antenna technologies for LTE-Advanced are briefly
discussed in [2], including design targets, deployment scenarios, multi-
antenna setups, downlink and uplink design, and performance assessment
based on cell spectral efficiency and cell-edge user spectral efficiency. It
was shown in [2] that the cross-polarized antenna setup at the base station
outperforms the co-polarized one in terms of cell spectral efficiency while
the opposite is true for cell edge user spectral efficiency case. More
techniques related to MU-MIMO in LTE-Advanced are also introduced in
[3], [4], including design challenges, precoding, control signaling and
dynamic SU/MU-MIMO switching.
MU-MIMO combined with a frequency domain packet scheduler for
LTE downlink was studied in [5] and it was shown that MU-MIMO with
precoding always outperforms MU-MIMO without precoding in terms of
ergodic capacity. Other benefits offered by different precoding techniques
5
for 3GPP LTE and beyond can also be found in [6]. In [7], it was shown that
the use of opportunistic scheduling as well as deploying more antennas at
either the receiver or both the transmitter/receiver provides higher gain in
terms of capacity in uplink compared with single antenna at the receiver.
Maximum Sum-Rate (MSR), Maximum Fairness (Max-Min) and
Proportional Fair (PF) scheduling algorithms were investigated in [8], and it
was shown that from the physical layer point of view, the MSR performs
best in terms of throughput both Max-Min and PF while it is not the case
from the Medium Access Control (MAC) where the PF offers the best
performance. The results found in [9] show that the SU-MIMO and MU-
MIMO cell throughput depends on the antenna configurations at the BS as
well as on the antenna spacing. The PF and Max-Rate scheduling algorithms
with joint optimization proposed in [10] offered the same performance in
terms of bit rate as a function of number of users, and found performance
gains with respect to sequential optimization.
It was later shown in [11], that the Exponential/Proportional Fair
(EXP/PF) scheduling algorithm outperforms PF, Max-Rate, and Round-
Robin scheduling algorithms in terms of system throughput. The scheduling
algorithms proposed in [12] for both single-cell and multi-cell MU-MIMO
to mitigate both intra-cell and inter-cell interference by the so-called optimal
user pairing have shown to offer significant improvement in terms of both
cell average user throughput and cell-edge user throughput. To meet the
quality of service (QoS) requirements of the real-time traffic such as Voice
over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Video flows, the modified scheduler
based on PF, Modified Largest Weighted Delay First (M-LWDF), VT-M-
LWDF, Queue-HOL-MLWDF schedulers has been suggested and it has
proved to offer best performance in terms of throughput and packet loss
ratio (PLR) [13]. In [14], the PF scheduler functionality has been enhanced
by proposing a method of predicting future Channel Quality Indicator (CQI)
values for high mobility users based on the user’s locations. A comparison
analysis of different scheduling algorithms in LTE such as Round Robin,
Proportional Fair, Best CQI, Resource Fair and Max-Min can be found in
[15].

6
Limitations
This thesis work has the following limitations:
 SRS bandwidth: Sub-band SRS (24 x 4 PRBs). Due to limitations in
the simulator, we cannot consider sub-bands SRS.
 MU-MIMO results for 1SRSAS UE and 1SRSWOAS UE Antenna
configurations and different periodicities are not included due to
time limitation.

Thesis outline
This thesis work is organized into 6 chapters. Chapter 1 is an
introduction. Chapter 2 reviews the general theoretical background
including 3GPP standards, MU-MIMO and scheduling in LTE. Chapter 3
briefly discusses the simulation framework for the scheduler algorithms
(SU-MIMO/MU-MIMO). Chapter 4 highlights the obtained results followed
by a discussion. Chapter 5 summarizes the main conclusions based on the
obtained results. Finally, Chapter 6 includes the future work related to the
project work.

7
8
2. Background Theory
MIMO antenna system configurations have shown to offer benefits in terms
of diversity gain, array gain (beamforming), and spatial multiplexing gain as
shown in Fig. 2.1 [16].

Array Gain
Diversity Gain

Spatial
Multiplexing
Gain

Figure 2.1: Benefits of MIMO [16]


Diversity overcomes fading by using multiple antennas at the receiver
(receive diversity) or at the transmitter (transmit diversity) to combine
coherently different fading signal paths.
Beamforming increases the received SINR by using multiple antenna
elements (antenna arrays) at the transmitter to focus the transmitted energy
towards the receiver. Receiver side beamforming is also possible.
Spatial Multiplexing increases the data rate by using multiple antennas
at both the transmitter and the receiver such that multiple data streams are
transmitted over parallel channels.
To reap the benefits of MIMO, recent 3GPP standards define novel
transceiver architectures that support multi-antenna techniques. We describe
these architectures below.

9
The 3GPP standards
Fig. 2.2 shows the generic block diagram for the downlink physical
channel processing [17].

Figure 2.2: Downlink physical channel processing [17]


 Scrambling: Coded bits in each of the codewords to be transmitted
on a physical channel are scrambled.
 Modulation/Layer mapping: Scrambled bits are modulated (QPSK,
16QAM, 64QAM, 256QAM) to produce complex symbols and
these are mapped onto one or several transmission layers.
 Precoding: Complex symbols are for transmission on the antenna
ports.
 Resource element mapping: Precoded complex symbols at each
antenna port are mapped to resource elements.
 OFDM signal generation: OFDM symbols for each antenna port are
generated.
Codewords in Fig. 2.2 are generated through the following steps [18]:
 Transport block CRC attachment
 Code block segmentation and code block CRC attachment
 Channel coding (Turbo coding)
 Rate matching
 Code block concatenation
Fig. 2.3 shows the general structure for uplink physical channel
processing [17].

10
Figure 2.3: Uplink physical channel processing [17]
 Scrambling: Coded bits in each of the codewords to be transmitted
on a physical channel are scrambled.
 Modulation/Layer mapping: Scrambled bits are modulated (QPSK,
16QAM, 64QAM) to produce complex symbols and these are
mapped onto one or several transmission layers.
 Transform precoding (TP)/Precoding: Complex symbols are
precoded on each layer for transmission on the antenna ports after
transform precoding.
 Resource element (RE) mapping/SC-FDMA generation: Precoded
complex symbols are mapped to resource elements and SC-FDMA
symbols for each antenna port are generated.
Codewords in Fig. 2.3 are generated according to [18] through the
following steps:
 Transport block CRC attachment
 Code block segmentation and code block CRC attachment
 Channel coding of UL-SCH
 Rate matching
 Code block concatenation and channel coding (Turbo coding)
 Data and control multiplexing
 Channel interleaver.

2.1.1. Frame structure


3GPP defines three radio frame structures of 10 ms duration (each radio
frame) as follows [16], [17]:
 Type 1 used in Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) mode only.
 Type 2 used in Time Division Duplex (TDD) mode only.

11
 Type 3 used in Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) secondary cell
operation only.
In this thesis work, only frame structure type 2 is considered. In TDD
mode, both uplink and downlink transmissions occur in the same frequency
band but at different time periods. Frame structure type 2 is illustrated in
Fig. 2.4.

Figure 2.4: Frame structure type 2 (switch-point periodicity = 5ms) [17]


Each radio frame duration (Tf) is 10 ms long and consists of 2 half-
frames of length equal to 5 ms (each half-frame). Each half-frame consists
of 5 subframes of length equal to 1 ms each. Thus, one radio frame is made
up of 10 consecutive subframes numbered from 0 to 9.
Frame structure type 2 defines a special subframe for downlink-to-
uplink switch, which comes in two periodicities: 5 ms and 10 ms. With 5 ms
downlink-to-uplink switch-point periodicity, the special subframe occurs in
both half-frames; with 10 ms downlink-to-uplink switch-point periodicity,
the special subframe occurs in the first half-frame only. Subframes zero,
five and the downlink part of special subframe (DwPTS) are always
associated with downlink transmissions, while the Uplink part of special
subframe (UpPTS) and the subframe immediately succeeding the special
subframe are always associated with uplink transmissions. GP denotes the
guard period between DwPTS and UpPTS.
From the above rules, many uplink-downlink configurations for radio
frame type 2 are possible. These are listed in Appendix 2.A, where "D"
denotes a subframe associated with downlink transmissions, "U" a subframe
associated with uplink transmissions, and "S" a special subframe containing
the three parts: DwPTS, GP and UpPTS discussed above [17]. In this thesis
work, we are solely concerned with uplink-downlink configuration 2 (see
Appendix 2.A).

2.1.2. Physical resource block


A physical resource block (PRB) is the smallest unit of resources that
can be allocated to one UE, and extends in both time and frequency
domains.

12
Three different types of PRBs have been defined by 3GPP [16], [17]:
 Normal cyclic prefix with 15 kHz subcarriers.
 Extended cyclic prefix with 15 kHz subcarriers.
 Extended cyclic prefix with 7.5 kHz subcarriers.
In this thesis work, only normal cyclic prefix-PRBs are considered. One
such PRB is shown in Fig. 2.5.
The role of the e-Node B’s scheduler is to allocate PRBs to the UEs to
allow both uplink and downlink data transmissions. The physical resource
block structure (Fig. 2.5) is defined as follows [16], [17], [20], [21], [22]: A
physical resource block (0.5 ms long in time-domain) contains 7 OFDM
symbols in the time domain and 12 subcarriers (180 kHz) in the frequency
domain for normal cyclic prefix. As shown in Fig. 2.5, one subcarrier
occupies a bandwidth of 15 kHz.

Figure 2.5: Physical resource block (Normal cyclic prefix) [16]


The relationship between the number of physical resource blocks in the
frequency-domain and the system bandwidth assuming the subcarrier
spacing (Δf) of 15 kHz is shown in Table 2.1 [16].
System bandwidth = Number of subcarriers x subcarrier spacing
PRB bandwidth = 12 subcarriers x subcarrier spacing
= 180 kHz
Number of PRBs = System bandwidth / PRB bandwidth
13
This means that there are 6, 15, 25, 50, 75 and 100 PRBs for 1.4, 3, 5,
10, 15 and 20 MHz system bandwidths respectively.
Table 2.1: Physical resource blocks vs system bandwidth [16]

System bandwidth (MHz) 1.4 3 5 10 15 20

PRBs (Frequency-domain) 6 15 25 50 75 100

2.1.3. Concept of antenna ports in LTE (Downlink)


3GPP introduced the concept of antenna ports in downlink (e-Node B to
UE) where one resource grid per antenna port is used and the antenna ports
are determined by the reference signal configuration in the cell [17].
Table 2.2 summarizes the different antenna ports configuration with
their corresponding supported reference signals [17]:
 Cell-specific reference signals (CRS) are sent on antenna port(s) 0,
{0,1} and {0,1,2,3}.
 Downlink demodulation reference signals (DM-RS(DL)), sometimes
referred to as UE-specific reference signals associated with physical
downlink shared channel (PDSCH), are sent on antenna port(s) 5, 7,
8, 11, 13, {11,13} or {7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14}.
Table 2.2: Antenna ports and their respective downlink reference signals
[17]
Antenna port(s) 0 {0-1} {0-3} 5,7,8,11,13 {11,13} {7-14}
UE-specific reference signals
Reference signals CRS
(DM-RS(DL))
In this thesis work, antenna ports {0,1} are considered for CRS while
for UE-specific reference signals, antenna ports {7,8}. Next we show the
resources grids associated with these antenna ports.
Fig. 2.6 illustrates the resource grid of CRS reference signals
transmitted on antenna ports 𝑝 ∈ {0,1} where 𝑅𝑝 denotes a resource element
corresponding to antenna port 𝑝.

14
Figure 2.6: Two-antenna port configuration for CRS (Normal cyclic prefix)
[17]
Fig. 2.7 illustrates the resource grid of UE-specific reference signals
(DM-RS(DL)), transmitted on antenna ports 𝑝 ∈ {7,8} where 𝑅𝑝 denotes a
resource element corresponding to antenna port 𝑝.

Figure 2.7: Antenna port configuration for UE-specific reference signals,


antenna ports 7 and 8 (Normal cyclic prefix) [17]

2.1.4. Concept of antenna ports in LTE (Uplink)


Like the downlink case (see Section 2.1.3), 3GPP introduced also the
concept of antenna ports in uplink (UE to e-Node B) where one resource
grid per antenna port is used. The antenna ports that are used for

15
transmission of physical channel or signal are determined by the number of
antenna ports as shown in Table 2.3 where [17]:
 The physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and SRS use the same
antenna ports 10, {20,21} and {40,41,42,43}.
 The physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and uplink
demodulation reference signals (DM-RS(UL)) use antenna ports 100
and {200,201}.
Table 2.3: Antenna ports for different physical channels and signals [17]
Antenna port(s) 10 {20,21} {40-43} 100 {200-201}
Physical channel
PUSCH/SRS PUCCH/DM-RS(UL)
or signal
In this thesis work, antenna ports 10 and {20-21} are considered for
PUSCH/SRS while for PUCCH/DM-RS(UL), antenna ports 100, {200-201}.
Fig. 2.8 illustrates the DM-RS(UL) structure (Normal cyclic prefix), sent
in each uplink slot (fourth symbol).

Figure 2.8: DM-RS(UL) structure (Normal cyclic prefix) [16], [20], [21], [22]
With frame structure type 2 (TDD), SRS sequences are sent in uplink
subframes, or in special subframes (uplink part). SRS configurations are
16
defined for full bandwidth (Non-frequency hopping SRS), or for sub-bands
(Frequency hopping SRS), as shown in Fig. 2.9 - 2.10 [16], [20], [21], [22].

Figure 2.9: Full bandwidth (96 PRBs) SRS configuration and 5 ms SRS
(sounding) periodicity

Figure 2.10: Sub-bands (24 PRBs) SRS configuration and 5 ms SRS


(sounding) periodicity

2.1.5. Transmission modes in LTE


Different downlink transmission modes (1 to 10) are specified by 3GPP
for LTE [19]. In this thesis work, only transmission mode 8 (TM-8), based
on dual layer transmission using ports 7 and 8, is considered; see Table 2.4.

17
TM-8 supports beamforming. In TDD operation, the e-Node B
computes the beamforming weights from the SRS by exploiting channel
reciprocity [16].
Table 2.4: Transmission mode 8 [19]

Transmission Transmission scheme


mode of PDSCH

Single-antenna port, port 0 or Transmit diversity


(DCI Format 1A)

TM-8 Dual layer transmission, ports 7 and 8 or Single-


antenna port, port 7 or 8 (DCI Format 2B)

TM-8 in LTE downlink is described in detail in Appendix 2.B. For the


uplink case, the different transmission modes (mode 1 and mode 2)
specified by 3GPP are given in Table 2.5 [19].
Table 2.5: Basic PUSCH transmission modes [19]

Transmission mode Transmission scheme of PUSCH

Mode 1 Single-antenna port, port 10

Single-antenna port, port 10


Mode 2
Closed-loop spatial multiplexing

2.1.6. Beamforming
As mentioned at the beginning of Sec. 2, transmitter-side beamforming
increases the received SINR by using multiple antenna elements at the
transmitter to focus the transmitted energy towards the receiver.
In Fig. 2.11, an e-Node B uses an antenna array to “beamform”
transmissions to specific UEs [16].
A description of antenna array configurations used in the simulations
can be found in Sec 3.4.

18
Figure 2.11: Illustration of beamforming (BS side) [16]

Multi-user Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-


MIMO)
The main difference between SU-MIMO and MU-MIMO is illustrated
in Fig. 2.13-2.14. In SU-MIMO, time-frequency resource is allocated to a
single user communicating with the e-Node B. In MU-MIMO, different UEs
can communicate with the e-Node B using the same time-frequency
resource by the so-called spatial separation [1].

Figure 2.12: Illustartion of SU-MIMO (left), and MU-MIMO (right) [1]


With MU-MIMO, several users can communicate with the BS in the
same time-frequency resource.

19
2.2.1. System model
A general downlink MU-MIMO system is shown in Fig. 2.15 having a
BS (e-Node B) equipped with MT antennas and K UEs each equipped with
MR antennas (usually 1 or 2) in a cell. For the sake of argument, we let MR =
1 below.

Figure 2.13: System model


We assume a frequency flat channel given by the 𝐾 × 𝑀𝑇 channel
matrix 𝐻 = [ℎ1𝑇 … ℎ𝐾𝑇 ]𝑇
, where ℎ𝑘 is the 1 × 𝑀𝑇 MISO channel of user 𝑘.
The input-output relation of the MU-MIMO channel is given by [26]:
𝑦 = √𝐸𝑠 𝐻𝑠 + 𝑛, (2.1)
Where 𝑠 is the 𝑀𝑇 × 1 vector of precoded transmitted symbols
satisfying 𝐸{𝑠 𝐻 𝑠} = 1, 𝑦 the 𝐾 × 1 vector of symbols received by the UEs,
𝑛 a 𝐾 × 1 UE noise vector with zero-mean circularly symmetric complex
Gaussian (ZMCSCG) independent entries with variance 𝑁0 , and 𝐸𝑠 is the
total average energy available at the BS in one symbol period.
Linear precoding is sometimes assumed, both for its effectiveness and
analytical simplicity. With linear precoding at the BS, 𝑠 takes on the form:
𝑠 = 𝑊𝑥, (2.2)
Where 𝑊 is a 𝑀𝑇 × 𝐾 precoding matrix, and 𝑥 = [𝑥1 , … , 𝑥𝐾 ]𝑇 with 𝑥𝑘
the data symbol of user 𝑘, which we assume ZMCSCG distributed with unit
variance. Inserting (2.2) into (2.1), we obtain:

20
𝑦 = √𝐸𝑠 𝐻𝑊𝑥 + 𝑛, (2.3)
Or, using the notation 𝑊 = [𝑤1 … 𝑤𝐾 ],
𝐾

𝑦𝑖 = ℎ𝑤𝑖 𝑥𝑖 + ℎ𝑖 ∑ 𝑤𝑥𝑗 + 𝑛𝑖 , 𝑖 = 1, … , 𝐾. (2.4)


𝑗=1,𝑗≠𝑖

The first part on the right-hand side of equation (2.4) represents the
desired received signal at UE i while the middle part represents the multi-
user interference (MUI) coming from other UEs in the same cell.

2.2.2. Linear precoding in MU-MIMO


Precoding or pre-filtering at the BS is used to focus the transmitted
signal towards the intended users and attempt to null interfering signal
towards other users. Pre-filtering methods such as zero forcing (ZF) and
minimum mean square error (MMSE) can be found in [26].

The ith column of the ZF pre-filtering matrix, wZF,i, is given by [26]:


(ϯ)
ℎ𝑖
𝑊𝑍𝐹,𝑖 = (2.5)
(ϯ)
√‖ℎ𝑖 ‖
𝐹
(ϯ)
where i = 1, 2, . . ., P (P is the number of users), ℎ𝑖 is the ith column of H†,
and Es,i is chosen subject to the power constraint ∑𝑃𝑖=1 𝐸𝑠,𝑖 = 𝐸𝑠 .

For the MMSE precoder, the SINR at the ith user is given by [26]:
|ℎ𝑖 𝑤𝑖 |2 𝐸𝑠,𝑖
𝑆𝐼𝑁𝑅𝑖 = 𝑃 (2.6)
(∑𝑗=1,𝑗≠𝑖|ℎ𝑖 𝑤𝑖 |2 𝐸𝑠,𝑖 ) + 𝑁0

where i = 1, 2, . . ., P (P is the number of users), hi is the ith row of H, and


Es,i is chosen subject to the power constraint ∑𝑃𝑖=1 𝐸𝑠,𝑖 = 𝐸𝑠 and
‖𝑤𝑖 ‖2 𝐹 = 1.
The drawbacks of a ZF precoder are power reduction and noise
enhancement problems. However, MMSE precoder outperforms ZF
precoder by trading interference reduction for signal power inefficiency.

21
Scheduling in LTE
The main task of the scheduler is to determine how the shared time-
frequency resources should be allocated to different UEs. To accomplish
this task, both uplink and downlink schedulers are implemented in the e-
Node B. The scheduling decisions are often taken every Transmission Time
Interval (TTI), i.e. one millisecond [20], [21], [22].
 The downlink scheduler determines which UEs upon which the DL-
SCH should be transmitted by assigning time-frequency resources
to them.
 The uplink scheduler determines which UEs should transmit on
their UL-SCH by assigning time-frequency resources to them.

2.3.1. Scheduling strategies


Different scheduling strategies such as Max-C/I (or maximum rate),
Round Robin (RR) and Proportional Fair (PF) have been briefly discussed
in [20], [21], [22]. In this thesis work, only the RR scheduler is considered.
Its principle is based on assigning time-frequency resources to different UEs
in a cyclic fashion for the same amount of time without considering the
channel conditions experienced by different UEs [20], [21], [22].

2.3.2. Downlink packet scheduling in LTE


As mentioned earlier, the uplink and downlink schedulers are in the e-
Node B. Scheduling decisions are taken every TTI (1 ms) by allocating
time-frequency resources to different UEs. These resources are in the data
region while the downlink and uplink scheduling information is in the
control region of the downlink subframe. Within 1 ms, the control region
occupies 1 to 4 OFDM symbols (usually 3) which is indicated by the
Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH) and the data region
where the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) is located, occupies
the remaining OFDM symbols (usually 11), as shown in Fig. 2.14 [27].
Control Region: 3 OFDM signals dedicated to signaling information
Data Region: Remaining 11 OFDM signals used for data transmission

22
Figure 2.14: Time-Frequency structure of the LTE downlink subframe
(example with 3 OFDM symbols dedicated to control channels) [27]
The control region contains the following downlink physical channels:
Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH), Physical Hybrid-
ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH) and Physical Downlink Control Channel
(PDCCH), while in the data region, there are: Physical Downlink Shared
Channel (PDSCH) and Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) [28].
From scheduling point of view, the PDCCH and PDSCH are the ones of
main interest. The PDCCH carries the downlink control information (DCI)
indicating where the downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) scheduling
information is located. This DCI message informs UE devices where to find
their data on the PDSCH [27], [28]. Different DCI formats used for
scheduling and power control purposes are listed in Table 2.6. In this thesis
work, DCI format 2B is the one which will be considered. It is associated
with transmission mode 8 (TM-8) and used for scheduling with dual layer
transmission as shown in Table 2.6.

23
Table 2.6: Supported DCI formats in REL. 8–11 [28]
DCI Formats Purpose
UL 0 UL Scheduling + TPC (PUSCH)
Scheduling UL Scheduling with CLSM + TPC
4
(PUSCH) (PUSCH) (Rel. 10-11)
1 Scheduling, TPC (PUCCH)
Compact Scheduling with TxD, TPC
1A
(PUCCH)
Compact Scheduling with CLSM, TPC
1B
(PUCCH)
1C Very Compact Scheduling
Compact Scheduling with MU-MIMO,
1D
TPC (PUCCH)
Scheduling with CLSM or TxD, TPC
2
(PUCCH)
Scheduling with Large CDD or TxD,
2A
TPC (PUCCH)
DL Scheduling with Dual Layer
Scheduling 2B
Transmission, TPC (PUCCH) (Rel. 9-11)
(PDSCH) Up to 8 Layered Compact Scheduling,
2C
TPC (PUCCH) (Rel. 10-11)
Up to 8 Layered Compact Scheduling
2D
for CoMP, TPC (PUCCH) (Re. 11)
TPC for PUCCH, PUSCH 2bit Power
3
Adjustment
UL Power
TPC for PUCCH, PUSCH 1bit Power
Control 3A
Adjustment
In Table 2.6, we have used the following abbreviations:
TPC: Transmit Power Control
CLSM: Closed Loop Spatial Multiplexing
TxD: Transmit Diversity
MU-MIMO: Multi-User MIMO
CDD: Cyclic Delay Diversity
CoMP: Co-ordinated Multi Point

24
2.3.3. Downlink (DL) resource allocation
Three types of DL resource allocation supported by LTE are defined
[28]: Type 0, Type 1, and Type 2; but only Type 0 will be considered in this
thesis work. DL resource allocation Type 0’s bits and associated DCI
formats are given in Table 2.7. Type 0 is indicated by setting the “resource
allocation header” field to 0.
The number of resources to be allocated in downlink within a subframe
(or TTI = 1 ms) is given by [28]:
𝐷𝐿
𝑁𝑅𝐵
𝑅𝐴 = 𝑃
,
𝐷𝐿
Where RA denotes the Resource Assignment, 𝑁𝑅𝐵 is the system
bandwidth (BW) in terms physical resource blocks (PRBs) available in
downlink, P is the resource block group (RBG) size.
Table 2.7: DL resource allocation Type 0 with DCI formats 2/2A/2B/2C/2D
[28]
Bits DCI format 2/2A/2B*/2C*/2D*
0 to 3 Carrier Indicator in Rel. 10-11
1 Resource allocation header: Set to 0
𝑵𝑫𝑳 Resource Allocation Type 0
𝑹𝑩 𝐷𝐿
[ ] 𝑁𝑅𝐵
𝑷 [ 𝑃
]: Resource Assignment
2 UL Power Control (PUCCH)
Downlink Assignment Index (TDD DL/UL Configuration
2
1-6)
3 or 4 HARQ process number: 3 bits (FDD), 4 bits (TDD)
1 bit: Codeword Swap Flag or Scrambling Identity
1 or 3 3 bits: Antenna port(s), Scrambling Identity, # layer in Rel.
10-11
0 or 1 SRS Request only for TDD mode in Rel. 10-11
For transport block 1 & 2: 5 bits (MCS) + 1 bit (New data
8+8
indicator) + 2 bits (Redundancy version)
DCI Format 2 Closed Loop MIMO: 3 (# Ant. ports 2), 6
0, 2, (# Ant. ports 4)
3, 6 DCI Format 2A Open Loop MIMO: 0 (# Ant. ports 2), 2
(# Ant. ports 4)
DCI Format 2D*: PDSCH RE Mapping and Quasi-Co-
2
Location Indicator
2 HARQ-ACK resource offset only for EPDCCH in Re. 11

25
𝐷𝐿
As shown in Fig. 2.15, P is uniquely determined by 𝑁𝑅𝐵 . Up to 25
RBGs (numbered from RBG 0 to RBG 24) are allocated in downlink within
a system bandwidth of 100 MHz where each RBG is equal to 4 PRBs as
indicated by the parameter P. P = 4 in this case [28]. Within 100 MHz, there
are 100 PRBs with each PRB having 12 subcarriers (180 kHz) in 0.5 ms.

Figure 2.15: DL resource allocation type 0 [28]


Fig. 2.16 illustrates DL SU-MIMO scheduling and DL MU-MIMO
scheduling (Resource Allocation Type 0 for 3 UEs: UE1, UE2 & UE3) with
the following examples:
 Full-Buffer (FB) traffic: In SU-MIMO, 25 RBGs are allocated to
each UE every TTI, while in MU-MIMO, 3 users are paired (co-
scheduled) and allocated same 25 RBGs. In FB traffic case, UEs
send or receive data all time.
 File Transfer Protocol (FTP) traffic: In SU-MIMO, UE1 needs 4
RBGs, UE2 needs 3 RBGs and UE3 needs 2 RBGs in 1 TTI, while
in MU-MIMO, UE1 needs 4 RBGs, UE2 needs 7 RBGs and UE3
needs 9 RBGs because of MU-pairing in 1 TTI. In FTP traffic case,
UEs send or receive according to their buffer size status, e.g. 1 kB,
10 kB, 100 kB, 1 MB and so on.

26
Figure 2.16: DL SU-MIMO scheduling vs DL MU-MIMO scheduling

27
28
3. Simulation Framework
In this thesis work, the performance evaluation is based on system level
simulations. The simulation framework is organized according to Fig. 3.1.

Channel model & Scheduler Algorithms


Scenarios setup Test cases
Environment (SU-MIMO/MU-MIMO)

Figure 3.1: Simulation framework


 Channel model and environment: Spatial channel models (SCM)
and urban macro environment are considered (see Section 3.1).
 Scenario setup: Scenarios setup includes the system cell deployment
and system configurations parameters (see Section 3.2).
 Scheduler algorithms for SU/MU-MIMO: Scheduler algorithms for
SU/MU-MIMO are based on precoding considering ICI, and
without considering ICI (see Section 3.3).
 Test cases: Test cases are based on different parameters (see Section
3.4).

Channel model and environment


In this section, the spatial channel model (SCM) and the urban macro
(UMa) environment are succinctly described.

3.1.1. Channel model


For simulation purposes in this thesis work, we use the 3GPP SCM
channel model described in [23], [24], [25]. Two types of SCM are
considered:
 Two dimensional (2D) SCM [25]
 Three dimensional (3D) SCM [23], [24]
The main 2D SCM parameters at both the base station (BS) side and
mobile station (MS) side are given in Table 3.1.

29
Table 3.1: 2D SCM parameters [25]
Antenna pattern per sector Power Azimuth Spectrum
Parameters
(dB) (PAS) per-path
𝐴(𝜃) 𝑃(𝜃, 𝜎, 𝜃̅ )
BS side 𝜃 2 −√2|𝜃 − 𝜃̅ |
= −𝑚𝑖𝑛 [12 ( ) , 𝐴𝑚 ] = 𝑁0 𝑒𝑥𝑝 [ ] 𝐺(𝜃)
𝜃3𝑑𝐵 𝜎
𝑃(𝜃, 𝜎 ′ , 𝜃̅′ )
MS side -1 dBi (Omni-directional) −√2|𝜃 − 𝜃̅′ |
= 𝑁0 𝑒𝑥𝑝 [ ]
𝜎′
Where:
 θ: -180 degrees ≤ θ ≤ +180 degrees
 θ3dB = 70 degrees (3 sector scenario)
 Am = 20 dB (3 sector scenario)
 𝑁0 : Normalization constant
 𝐺(𝜃): BS antenna gain
 𝜃̅: Angle of departure (AoD) at the BS side
 𝜎: Root mean-square (RMS) angle-spread (AS) at the BS side
 𝜃̅′ : Angle of arrival (AoA) at the MS side
 𝜎 ′ : Root mean-square (RMS) angle-spread (AS) at the MS side
The main 3D SCM parameters are given in Table 3.2.
Table 3.2: 3D SCM parameters [23], [24]
Parameters values
Antenna element 2
𝜃′′ −900
𝐴𝐸,𝑉 (𝜃 ′′ ) = −𝑚𝑖𝑛 [12 ( ) , 𝑆𝐿𝐴𝑉 ], 𝜃3𝑑𝐵 =
vertical radiation 𝜃3𝑑𝐵
pattern (dB) 650 , 𝑆𝐿𝐴𝑉 = 30 𝑑𝐵
Antenna element 2
𝜑′′
horizontal 𝐴𝐸,𝐻 (𝜑′′ ) = −𝑚𝑖𝑛 [12 (𝜑 ) , 𝐴𝑚 ], 𝜑3𝑑𝐵 =
3𝑑𝐵
radiation pattern
650 , 𝐴𝑚 = 30 𝑑𝐵
(dB)
3D antenna
element pattern 𝐴′′ (𝜃 ′′ , 𝜑′′ ) = −𝑚𝑖𝑛{−[𝐴𝐸,𝑉 (𝜃 ′′ ) + 𝐴𝐸,𝐻 (𝜑′′ )], 𝐴𝑚 }
(dB)

30
3.1.2. Environment
For our performance evaluation, we selected the “urban macro-cell”
environment of 3GPP SCM [25]. The path-loss (PL) for this environment is
given by:
𝑃𝐿 (𝑑𝐵) = 𝐴 + 𝐵 + 37.6 log10 (𝑑) (3.1)
Where
 A is the attenuation constant (15.3 dB)
 B is the additional loss for indoor mobiles (20 dB)
 d is the distance between BS and MS in meters
Table 3.3: Urban macro cell environment parameters [25]
Parameters Value
Number of paths (N) 6
Number of sub-paths (M) per-path 20
μAS = 1.18
AS at BS (lognormal RV) 150
εAS = 0.210
0.65 μs μDS = -6.18
DS, lognormal RV)
(RMS) εDS = 0.18
Angular spread scaling parameter (rAS) 1.3
Delay spread scaling parameter (rDS) 1.7
Lognormal shadowing standard deviation, σSF 8 dB
The main parameters defining the urban macro cell environment are
given in Table 3.3, where we have used the following abbreviations:
 DS: Delay spread
 AS: Angular spread
 RMS: Root mean square
 μAS: mean AS
 εAS: AS standard deviation
 μDS: mean DS
 εDS: DS standard deviation

31
Scenario setup
3.2.1. System cell deployment
The system deployment is a 3GPP case 1 (Table 3.4) where the inter-
site distance (ISD) is equal to 500 meters [29].
Table 3.4: System cell deployment parameters
Parameters Value
Cell layout Hexagonal grid, 7 sites, 3 sectors per site
Inter-site distance (ISD) 500 meters
Carrier frequency 2 GHz
BS Max. Tx Power 40 watts or 46 dBm
Number of users (UEs) 210 (7 sites)/30 per site/10 per sector

3.2.2. System configurations parameters


The main system configuration parameters are given in Table 3.5.
Table 3.5: System configurations parameters
Parameters Value
System bandwidth 20 MHz (100 PRBs)
Frame structure Frame type 2 (TDD)
TDD configuration Uplink-Downlink configuration 2 (see Appendix 2.A)
Transmission
TM-8 (2 layers-transmission & Beamforming)
Mode
Scheduler Round Robin (RR)

Scheduler algorithms for MU-MIMO


The following steps, illustrated in Fig. 3.2, briefly summarize the two
scheduler algorithms for MU-MIMO evaluated in this thesis work. These
are algorithm 1, which does not consider ICI, and algorithm 2, which does
consider ICI.
Note that, although the processing flow Fig. 3.2 addresses MU-MIMO
scheduling only, it can be easily adapted for SU-MIMO scheduling. This
can be accomplished by simply ignoring steps 3 and 4 (UEs spatial
separation, and MU-MIMO pairing blocks, respectively) whenever with
SU-MIMO scheduling is desired.

32
Figure 3.2: Scheduler algorithms for MU-MIMO
Step 1. UEs candidate list: The e-Node B creates a list of all candidate
UEs to be scheduled in a cell.
Step 2. Channel information and validation: The BS acquires the
channel information from UE’s SRS. For every UE candidate, the BS
validates that the channel information stored is not older than the report
periodicity value at the scheduling time.
Step 3. UEs spatial separation: This operation is based on the UEs
channel information, and UEs to be paired must have a sufficiently low
33
channel correlation (UEs separated in space) according to a certain
threshold value, the orthogonality factor (OF).
Step 4. MU-MIMO pairing: UEs with sufficiently low channel
correlation are the ones to be co-scheduled (paired).
Step 5. Precoding: The precoding operations, based on MMSE (see
Section 2.2.3), are done differently for the two algorithms, i.e., Algorithm 1
and Algorithm 2.
Step 6. SINR calculation: The SINR is calculated based on the
precoding.
Step 7. SINR to raw bit capacity: This operation maps between the
calculated SINR and lookup table to calculate the raw bit capacity.
Step 8. Resource allocation: Resources are allocated according to the
algorithms introduced to the reader in Section 2.3.3.
Step 9. Scheduling and link adaptation: The Scheduler will choose
the appropriate modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for this transmission.

Test cases
The simulated test cases are based on various parameters, including:
UEs traffic profile, SRS UL antenna configuration, BS ULA topology, SRS
bandwidth and sounding periodicity, and UEs’ moving speed. The values
taken by these parameters are given in Table 3.6.
Table 3.6: Test cases’ parameters
UEs traffic profile Full-Buffer/FTP
2SRS UE
SRS UL antenna
1SRSAS UE
configuration
1SRSWOAS UE
BS ULA topology 1x4x2 4x8x2
SRS bandwidth 96 PRBs
SRS periodicity 5 ms 10 ms 20 ms
UEs mobility 3 km/h 30 km/h 60 km/h
The SRS configurations considered, shown in Fig. 3.3, are: (a) Two
transmit SRS UE (2SRS UE), (b) one transmitting SRS UE with antenna
selection (1SRSAS UE), and (c) one transmitting SRS UE without antenna
selection (1SRSWOAS UE).

34
2 Tx. SRS 1 Tx. SRS WAS 1 Tx. SRS WOAS

Tx1 Tx2 Tx Tx

`
(a) (b) (c)
Figure 3.3: (a) 2SRS UE, (b) 1SRSAS UE, (c) 1SRSWOAS UE
For 2SRS UE, two SRS are sent simultaneously to the BS from the two
UE’s antennas. For 1SRSAS UE, one SRS is sent to the BS from one UE
antenna at a given periodicity time, while another SRS is sent to the BS
from the other UE antenna at the next periodicity time, using an antenna
switch. Thus, for 1SRSAS UE, the actual SRS periodicity is doubled. For
1SRSWOAS UE, one SRS, which correspond to one of the dual layers, is
sent to the BS from one UE antenna at each periodicity time, while the other
layer information is estimated according to the orthogonality principle at the
BS.
The following base station uniform linear array (BSULA) topologies are
considered:
 1x4x2 ULA topology (Fig. 3.4): This topology consists of one row
of four cross-polarized antenna elements (i.e. 8 antenna ports) with
a horizontal spacing dH = 0.5λ between antenna elements, where λ
is the wavelength at the carrier frequency.
 4x8x2 ULA topology (Fig. 3.5): This topology consists of four rows
of eight cross-polarized antenna elements per row (i.e. 64 antenna
ports) with a horizontal spacing dH = 0.5λ and a vertical spacing dV
= 0.7λ between antenna elements, where λ is the wavelength at the
carrier frequency.

Figure 3.4: 1x4x2 ULA topology


35
Figure 3.5: 4x8x2 ULA topology

36
4. Results and Discussion
The simulation results are obtained through the following steps, illustrated
in Fig. 4.1 by means of a system level simulator:

Figure 4.1: Workflow using the system level simulator


 Define simulator: This includes specifying the libraries to be
imported by the simulator. For example, radio network functions,
protocols, nodes, etc.
 Set-up and run simulations: This includes setting parameter values
of the simulator radio network functions, defining traffic load, site
deployment, number of iterations (users), etc.
 Log output and post-process logged output: This includes logging
the output from the simulation and post-processing of the logged
output e.g. by using MATLAB.
 Analyze results: This means evaluating the outcomes form the
logged output for different test cases.
In this chapter, the logged output includes:
 End to End (E2E) average downlink throughput per cell in
bits/second.
 User throughput/BW vs. Average served traffic per cell/BW both in
bits/second/Hertz.
E2E downlink cell throughput description means serving cell downlink
throughput as measured by layer 3 (i.e., it does not include
MAC/RLC/HARQ).
All the curves are normalized by using the following same constants: ε
(average downlink throughput per cell), and α (UE throughput/BW vs.
Average cell throughput/BW).
As we have already mentioned, the algorithms for both SU-MIMO and
MU-MIMO are grouped into:
 Algorithm 1: based on precoding without considering ICI
(WOCICI).

37
 Algorithm 2: based on precoding considering ICI (WCICI)
The performance evaluation for both algorithms (SU/MU-MIMO) to be
considered is based on the following main test cases’ parameters:
 UEs speed
 SRS UL antenna configuration
 SRS parameters (SRS bandwidth/SRS periodicity)
 BS ULA topology
The purpose of this part is not only to evaluate the performance of the
system under consideration, but also to verify the correctness of some of the
functions in the system simulator, which is still under construction. Indeed,
several important bugs were found in various functions and reported to
Ericsson AB to be corrected.
The rest of this chapter is structured as follows. In Sec. 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3,
we present our results for SU-MIMO with FTP traffic profile and 8 BS
antenna elements, SU-MIMO with FB traffic profile and 64 BS antenna
elements, and MU-MIMO with FB traffic profile and 64 BS antenna
elements, respectively. Then, in Section 4.4 we present a comparative
analysis for these three cases.

SU-MIMO (FTP traffic profile and 8 BS antenna


elements)
The main simulation parameters for SU-MIMO with FTP traffic profile
and 8 BS antenna elements (BSULA topology: 1x4x2) are given in Table
4.1.

38
Table 4.1: Simulation parameters for SU-MIMO with FTP traffic profile
and 8 BS antenna elements (BSULA topology: 1x4x2)
System bandwidth 20MHz
Frame configuration TDD (2 UL subframes per frame)
Number of DL layers 2
Number of BS antenna
8
elements
Beamforming weights With and without considering ICI
Propagation model 2D SCM urban macro environment
7 sites x 3 sectors 21 cells, 3GPP case 1 (ISD 500m)
SRS (sounding)
96 PRBs (Full-bandwidth)
bandwidth
SRS (sounding)
[5, 10, 20]
periodicity (ms)
SRS UL antenna
2SRS UE, 1SRSAS UE, 1SRSWOAS UE
configuration
UE speed (km/h) [3, 30, 60]
FTP (100 kilobytes), two downloads per UE
with mean time between them of 20 ms,
UE traffic profile then the UE disconnects from the system
and a new UE enters after 100 ms.
Scheduling strategy Round Robin
Seeds 10, 10.005 seconds/seed
Number users as
[1,7,14,21,42,63,84,105,210]
iteration variable

39
4.1.1. SU-MIMO @8 BS antenna elements @5 ms SRS periodicity:
2SRS UE, 1SRSAS UE, 1SRSWOAS UE
Fig. 4.2 (2SRS UE), Fig. 4.3 (1SRSAS UE), and Fig. 4.4 (1SRWOAS
UE), illustrate average downlink throughput per cell, SU-MIMO case with
8 BS antenna elements, FTP traffic profile, 5 ms sounding periodicity, and
3, 30 and 60 km/h UE moving speeds.

Figure 4.2: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_8 BS antenna


elements @2SRS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @FTP

Figure 4.3: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_8 BS antenna


elements @1SRSAS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @FTP
40
Figure 4.4: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_8 BS antenna
elements @1SRSWOAS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @FTP
From Fig. 4.2, Fig 4.3, and Fig. 4.4, the following observations can be
made:
 Fig. 4.2, Fig. 4.3, and Fig. 4.4: In general, the average downlink
throughput per cell decreases with increasing UE speeds for both
algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI) and that is because of larger
Doppler spreads.
 Fig. 4.2: Algorithm 2 (WCICI) outperforms algorithm 1 (WOCICI)
in terms of average downlink throughput per cell for 3km/h UE
speed. However, for 30 and 60 km/h UE speeds, both algorithms
(WCICI & WOCICI) offer almost the same performance.
 Fig. 4.3: Both algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI) offer almost the
same performance in terms of average downlink throughput per cell
for 3 km/h UE speed. However, for 30 and 60 km/h UE speeds,
algorithm 1 (WOCICI) outperforms slightly algorithm 2 (WCICI).
 Fig. 4.4: Algorithm 2 (WCICI) outperforms algorithm 1 (WOCICI)
in terms of average downlink throughput per cell for 3km/h UEs
speed. However, for 30 and 60 km/h UE speeds, it is the opposite.
Fig. 4.5 (2SRS UE), Fig. 4.6 (1SRSAS UE), and Fig. 4.7 (1SRSWOAS
UE), illustrate User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell, SU-

41
MIMO case with 8 BS antenna elements, FTP traffic profile, 5 ms sounding
periodicity, and 3, 30 and 60 km/h UE moving speeds.

Figure 4.5: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_8 BS antenna elements @2SRS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @FTP

Figure 4.6: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_8 BS antenna elements @1SRSAS UE @5ms SRS periodicity
@FTP

42
Figure 4.7: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_8 BS antenna elements @1SRSWOAS UE @5ms SRS periodicity
@FTP
Fig. 4.5, Fig. 4.6, and Fig. 4.7 can be interpreted in the following way:
 Fig. 4.5, Fig. 4.6, and Fig. 4.7: The number of UEs to be optimally
handled decreases with increasing UE speed for a given user
throughput-spectral efficiency threshold for both algorithms
(WCICI & WOCICI).
 Fig. 4.5: For a user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold of 2α
bits/sec/Hz as an example, the system can handle optimally 84 UEs
with algorithm 1 (WOCICI) and 105 UEs with algorithm 2
(WCICI) for 3 km/h UE speed, and 63 UEs for 30 km/h UE speed
and 42 UEs for 60 km/h UE speed with both algorithms (WCICI &
WOCICI).
 Fig. 4.6: For a user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold of 2α
bits/sec/Hz as an example, the system can handle optimally 84 UEs
for 3 km/h UE speed and approximately 42 UEs for 30 and 60 km/h
UE speeds with both algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI).
 Fig. 4.7: For a user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold of 2α
bits/sec/Hz as an example, the system can handle optimally 63 UEs
for 3 km/h UE speed and approximately 42 UEs for 30 and 60 km/h
UE speed with both algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI).

43
4.1.2. SU-MIMO @8 BS antenna elements @10 ms SRS
periodicity: 2SRS UE, 1SRSAS UE, 1SRSWOAS UE
Fig. 4.8 (2SRS UE), Fig. 4.9 (1SRSAS UE), and Fig. 4.10 (1SRWOAS
UE), illustrate average downlink throughput per cell, SU-MIMO case with
8 BS antenna elements, FTP traffic profile, 10 ms sounding periodicity, and
3, 30 and 60 km/h UE moving speeds.

Figure 4.8: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_8 BS antenna


elements @2SRS UE @10ms SRS periodicity @FTP

Figure 4.9: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_8 BS antenna


elements @1SRSAS UE @10ms SRS periodicity @FTP

44
Figure 4.10: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_8 BS antenna
elements @1SRSWOAS UE @10ms SRS periodicity @FTP
From Fig. 4.8, Fig. 4.9, and Fig. 4.10, the following observations can be
made:
 Fig. 4.8, Fig. 4.9, and Fig. 4.10: In general, the average downlink
throughput per cell decreases with increasing UE speeds for both
algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI) and that is because of larger
Doppler spreads.
 Fig. 4.8: Algorithm 2 (WCICI) outperforms algorithm 1 (WOCICI)
in terms of average downlink throughput per cell for 3km/h UEs
speed. However, for 30 and 60 km/h UE speeds, both algorithms
(WCICI & WOCICI) offer almost the same performance.
 Fig. 4.9: Both algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI) offer almost the
same performance in terms of average downlink throughput per cell
for 3 km/h UE speed. However, for 30 and 60 km/h UE speeds,
algorithm 1 (WOCICI) outperforms slightly algorithm 2 (WCICI).
 Fig. 4.10: Algorithm 2 (WCICI) outperforms algorithm 1
(WOCICI) in terms of average downlink throughput per cell for
3km/h UEs speed. However, for 30 and 60 km/h UE speeds, it is the
opposite.

45
Fig. 4.11 (2SRS UE), Fig. 4.12 (1SRSAS UE), and Fig. 4.13
(1SRSWOAS UE), illustrate User throughput vs. Average served traffic
per cell, SU-MIMO case with 8 BS antenna elements, FTP traffic
profile, 10 ms sounding periodicity, and 3, 30 and 60 km/h UE moving
speeds.

Figure 4.11: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_8 BS antenna elements @2SRS UE @10ms SRS periodicity @FTP

Figure 4.12: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_8 BS antenna elements @1SRSAS UE @10ms SRS periodicity
@FTP
46
Figure 4.13: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_8 BS antenna elements @1SRSWOAS UE @10ms SRS periodicity
@FTP
Fig. 4.11, Fig. 4.12, and Fig. 4.13 can be interpreted in the following
way:
 Fig. 4.11, Fig. 4.12, and Fig. 4.13: The number of UEs to be
optimally handled decreases with increasing UE speed for a given
user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold for both algorithms
(WCICI & WOCICI).
 Fig. 4.11: For a user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold of 2α
bits/sec/Hz as an example, the system can handle optimally 84 for 3
km/h UEs speed and approximately 42 UEs for 30 km/h and 60
km/h UE speeds with both algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI).
 Fig. 4.12: For a user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold of 2α
bits/sec/Hz as an example, the system can handle optimally 84 UEs
for 3 km/h UE speed and approximately 42 UEs for 30 and 60 km/h
UE speeds with both algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI).
 Fig. 4.13: For a user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold of 2α
bits/sec/Hz as an example, the system can handle optimally 63 UEs
for 3 km/h UE speed and approximately 42 UEs for 30 and 60 km/h
UE speeds with both algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI).

47
4.1.3. SU-MIMO @8 BS antenna elements @20 ms SRS
periodicity: 2SRS UE, 1SRSAS UE, 1SRSWOAS UE
Fig. 4.14 (2SRS UE), Fig. 4.15 (1SRSAS UE), and Fig. 4.16
(1SRWOAS UE), illustrate average downlink throughput per cell, SU-
MIMO case with 8 BS antenna elements, FTP traffic profile, 20 ms
sounding periodicity, and 3, 30 and 60 km/h UE moving speeds.

Figure 4.14: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_8 BS antenna


elements @2SRS UE @20ms SRS periodicity @FTP

Figure 4.15: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_8 BS antenna


elements @1SRSAS UE @20ms SRS periodicity @FTP
48
Figure 4.16: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_8 BS antenna
elements @1SRSWOAS UE @20ms SRS periodicity @FTP
From Fig. 4.14, Fig. 4.15, and Fig. 4.16, the following observations can
be made:
 Fig. 4.14, Fig. 4.15, and Fig. 4.16: In general, the average
downlink throughput decreases with increasing UE speeds for both
algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI) and that is because of larger
Doppler spreads.
 Fig. 4.14: Algorithm 2 (WCICI) outperforms algorithm 1
(WOCICI) in terms of average downlink throughput per cell for
3km/h UEs speed. However, for 30 and 60 km/h UE speeds, both
algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI) offer almost the same
performance.
 Fig. 4.15: Both algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI) offer almost the
same performance in terms of average downlink throughput per cell
for 3 km/h UE speed up to approximately 140 UEs. Above 140
UEs, algorithm 1 (WOCICI) outperforms algorithm 2 (WCICI).
However, for 30 and 60 km/h UE speeds, algorithm 1 (WOCICI)
outperforms slightly algorithm 2 (WCICI).
 Fig. 4.16: Algorithm 2 (WCICI) outperforms algorithm 1
(WOCICI) in terms of average downlink throughput per cell for
3km/h UEs speed. However, for 30 and 60 km/h UE speeds, it is the
opposite.
49
Fig. 4.17 (2SRS UE), Fig. 4.18 (1SRSAS UE), and Fig. 4.19
(1SRSWOAS UE), illustrate User throughput vs. Average served traffic per
cell, SU-MIMO case with 8 BS antenna elements, FTP traffic profile, 20 ms
sounding periodicity, and 3, 30 and 60 km/h UE moving speeds.

Figure 4.17: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_8 BS antenna elements @2SRS UE @20ms SRS periodicity @FTP

Figure 4.18: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_8 BS antenna elements @1SRSAS UE @20ms SRS periodicity
@FTP

50
Figure 4.19: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_8 BS antenna elements @1SRSWOAS UE @20ms SRS periodicity
@FTP
Fig. 4.17, Fig. 4.18, and Fig. 4.19 can be interpreted in the following
way:
 Fig. 4.17, Fig. 4.18, and Fig. 4.19: The number of UEs to be
optimally handled decreases with increasing UE speed for a given
user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold for both algorithms
(WCICI & WOCICI).
 Fig. 4.17: For a user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold of 2α
bits/sec/Hz as an example, the system can handle optimally 84 UEs
for 3 km/h UEs speed and approximately 42 UEs for 30 km/h and
60 km/h UE speeds with both algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI).
 Fig. 4.18: For a user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold of 2α
bits/sec/Hz as an example, the system can handle optimally 63 UEs
for 3 km/h UE speed and approximately between 21 and 42 UEs for
30 and 60 km/h UE speeds with both algorithms (WCICI &
WOCICI).
 Fig. 4.19: For a user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold of 2α
bits/sec/Hz as an example, the system can handle optimally 63 UEs
for 3 km/h UE speed and approximately 42 UEs for 30 and 60 km/h
UE speeds with both algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI).

51
SU-MIMO (Full-Buffer traffic profile and 64 BS
antenna elements)
The main simulation parameters for SU-MIMO with Full-Buffer traffic
profile and 64 BS antenna elements (BSULA topology: 4x8x2) are given in
Table 4.2.
Table 4.2: Simulation parameters for SU-MIMO with Full-Buffer traffic
profile and 64 BS antennas elements (BSULA topology: 4x8x2)
System bandwidth 20MHz
Frame configuration TDD (2 UL subframes per frame)
Number of DL
2
layers
Number of BS
64
antenna elements
Beamforming
With and without considering ICI
weights
Propagation model 2D SCM Urban macro environment
7 sites x 3 sectors 21 cells, 3GPP case 1 (ISD 500m)
SRS (sounding)
96 PRBs (Full-bandwidth)
bandwidth
SRS (sounding)
[5, 10, 20]
periodicity (ms)
2SRS UE, 1SRSAS UE, 1SRSWOAS
SRS UL antenna
UE
configuration

UE speed (km/h) [3, 30, 60]


UE traffic profile Full-Buffer
Scheduling strategy Round Robin
Seeds 10, 10.005 seconds/seed
Number users as
[1,7,14,21,42,63,84,105,210]
iteration variable

52
4.2.1. SU-MIMO @64 BS antenna elements @5 ms SRS
periodicity: 2SRS UE, 1SRSAS UE, 1SRSWOAS UE
Fig. 4.20 (2SRS UE), Fig. 4.21 (1SRSAS UE), and Fig. 4.22
(1SRWOAS UE), illustrate average downlink throughput per cell, SU-
MIMO case with 64 BS antenna elements, Full-Buffer traffic profile, 5 ms
sounding periodicity, and 3, 30 and 60 km/h UE moving speeds.

Figure 4.20: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_64 BS


antenna elements @2SRS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer

Figure 4.21: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_64 BS


antenna elements @1SRSAS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer
53
Figure 4.22: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_64 BS
antenna elements @1SRSWOAS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer
From Fig. 4.20, Fig. 2.21, and Fig. 2.22 the following observations can
be made:
 Fig. 4.20, Fig. 4.21, and Fig. 4.22: In general, the average
downlink throughput decreases with increasing UE speeds for both
algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI) and that is because of larger
Doppler spreads.
 Fig. 4.20: Algorithm 2 (WCICI) outperforms algorithm 1
(WOCICI) in terms of average downlink throughput per cell for 3,
30 and 60 km/h UE speed.
 Fig. 4.21: Algorithm 2 (WCICI) outperforms algorithm 1
(WOCICI) in terms of average downlink throughput per cell for 3,
30 and 60 km/h UE speed.
 Fig. 4.22: Algorithm 2 (WCICI) outperforms algorithm 1
(WOCICI) in terms of average downlink throughput per cell for 3,
30 and 60 km/h UE speed.
Fig. 4.23 (2SRS UE), Fig. 4.24 (1SRSAS UE), and Fig. 4.25
(1SRSWOAS UE), illustrate User throughput vs. Average served traffic
per cell, SU-MIMO case with 64 BS antenna elements, Full-Buffer
traffic profile, 5 ms sounding periodicity, and 3, 30 and 60 km/h UE
moving speeds.
54
Figure 4.23: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_64 BS antenna elements @2SRS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @Full-
Buffer

Figure 4.24: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_64 BS antenna elements @1SRSAS UE @5ms SRS periodicity
@Full-Buffer

55
Figure 4.25: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_64 BS antenna elements @1SRSWOAS UE @5ms SRS periodicity
@Full-Buffer
Fig. 4.23, Fig. 4.24, and Fig. 4.25 can be interpreted in the following
way:
 Fig. 4.23, Fig. 4.24, and Fig. 4.25: The number of UEs to be
optimally handled decreases with increasing UE speed for a given
user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold for both algorithms
(WCICI & WOCICI).
 Fig. 4.23: For a user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold of 10α
bits/sec/Hz as an example, the system can handle approximately 63
UEs with algorithm 1 (WOCICI) and 84 UEs with algorithm 2
(WCICI) for 3 km/h UE speed, and 42 UEs with algorithm 1
(WOCICI) and 63 UEs with algorithm 2 (WCICI) for 30 km/h UE
speed, and approximately 42 UEs with both algorithms (WCICI &
WOCICI) for 60 km/h UE speed.
 Fig. 4.24: For a user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold of 10α
bits/sec/Hz as an example, the system can handle optimally 63 UEs
for 3 km/h UE speed, and 42 UEs for 30 and 60 km/h UE speeds
with both algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI).
 Fig. 4.25: For a user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold of 10α
bits/sec/Hz as an example, the system can handle optimally 42 UEs
with algorithm 1 (WOCICI) and 63 UEs with algorithm 2 (WCICI)
for 3 km/h UE speed, and 21 UEs with algorithm 1 (WOCICI) and
42 UEs with algorithm 2 (WCICI) for 30 km/h UE speed, and 21
56
UEs with both algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI) for 60 km/h UE
speed.

4.2.2. SU-MIMO @64 BS antenna elements @10 ms SRS


periodicity: 2SRS UE, 1SRSAS UE, 1SRSWOAS UE
Fig. 4.26 (2SRS UE), Fig. 4.27 (1SRSAS UE), and Fig. 4.28
(1SRWOAS UE), illustrate average downlink throughput per cell, SU-
MIMO case with 64 BS antenna elements, Full-Buffer traffic profile, 10 ms
sounding periodicity, and 3, 30 and 60 km/h UE moving speeds.

Figure 4.26: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_64 BS


antenna elements @2SRS UE @10 ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer

Figure 4.27: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_64 BS


antenna elements @1SRSAS UE @10 ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer
57
Figure 4.28: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_64 BS
antenna elements @1SRSWOAS UE @10 ms SRS periodicity @Full-
Buffer
From Fig. 4.26, Fig. 4.27, and Fig. 4.28, the following observations can
be made:
 Fig. 4.26, Fig. 4.27, and Fig. 4.28: In general, the average
downlink throughput decreases with increasing UE speeds for both
algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI) and that is because of larger
Doppler spreads.
 Fig. 4.26: Algorithm 2 (WCICI) outperforms algorithm 1
(WOCICI) in terms of average downlink throughput per cell for 3,
30 and 60 km/h UE speed.
 Fig. 4.27: Algorithm 2 (WCICI) outperforms algorithm 1
(WOCICI) in terms of average downlink throughput per cell for 3,
30 and 60 km/h UE speed.
 Fig. 4.28: Algorithm 2 (WCICI) outperforms algorithm 1
(WOCICI) in terms of average downlink throughput per cell for 3,
30 and 60 km/h UE speed.
Fig. 4.29 (2SRS UE), Fig. 4.30 (1SRSAS UE), and Fig. 4.31
(1SRSWOAS UE), illustrate User throughput vs. Average served traffic
per cell, SU-MIMO case with 64 BS antenna elements, Full-Buffer
traffic profile, 10 ms sounding periodicity, and 3, 30 and 60 km/h UE
moving speeds.
58
Figure 4.29: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_64 BS antenna elements @2SRS UE @10ms SRS periodicity
@Full-Buffer

Figure 4.30: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_64 BS antenna elements @1SRSAS UE @10ms SRS periodicity
@Full-Buffer

59
Figure 4.31: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_64 BS antenna elements @1SRSWOAS UE @10ms SRS
periodicity @Full-Buffer
Fig. 4.29, Fig. 4.30, and Fig. 4.31 can be interpreted in the following
way:
 Fig. 4.29, Fig. 4.20, and Fig. 4.31: The number of UEs to be
optimally handled decreases with increasing UE speed for a
given user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold for both
algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI).
 Fig. 4.29: For a user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold of
10α bits/sec/Hz as an example, the system can handle
approximately 63 UEs with algorithm 1 (WOCICI) and 84 UEs
with algorithm 2 (WCICI) for 3 km/h UE speed, and 42 UEs
with algorithm 1 (WOCICI) and 63 UEs with algorithm 2
(WCICI) for 30 km/h, and 42 UEs with both algorithms
(WCICI & WOCICI) for 60 km/h UE speed.
 Fig. 4.30: For a user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold of
10α bits/sec/Hz as an example, the system can handle optimally
63 UEs for 3 km/h UE speed, 42 UEs for 30 km/h UE speed,
and 21 UEs for 60 km/h UE speed with both algorithms
(WCICI & WOCICI).
 Fig. 4.31: For a user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold of
10α bits/sec/Hz as an example, the system can handle optimally
60
42 UEs with algorithm 1 (WOCICI) and 63 UEs with algorithm
2 (WCICI) for 3 km/h UE speed, and 21 UEs with algorithm 1
(WOCICI) and 42 UEs with algorithm 2 (WCICI) for 30 km/h
UE speed, and 21 UEs with both algorithms (WCICI &
WOCICI) for 60 km/h UE speed.

4.2.3. SU-MIMO @64 BS antenna elements @20 ms SRS


periodicity: 2SRS UE, 1SRSAS UE, 1SRSWOAS UE
Fig. 4.32 (2SRS UE), Fig. 4.33 (1SRSAS UE), and Fig. 4.34
(1SRWOAS UE), illustrate average downlink throughput per cell, SU-
MIMO case with 64 BS antenna elements, Full-Buffer traffic profile, 20 ms
sounding periodicity, and 3, 30 and 60 km/h UE moving speeds.

Figure 4.32: Average downlink throughput/Cell @SU-MIMO_64 BS


antenna elements @2SRS UE @20 ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer

61
Figure 4.33: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_64 BS
antenna elements @1SRSAS UE @20 ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer

Figure 4.34: Average downlink throughput/cell @SU-MIMO_64 BS


antenna elements @1SRSWOAS UE @20 ms SRS periodicity @Full-
Buffer
From Fig. 4.32, Fig. 4.33, and Fig. 4.34, the following observations can
be made:

62
 Fig. 4.32, Fig. 4.33, and Fig. 4.34: In general, the average
downlink throughput decreases with increasing UE speeds for both
algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI) and that is because of larger
Doppler spreads.
 Fig. 4.32: Algorithm 2 (WCICI) outperforms algorithm 1
(WOCICI) in terms of average downlink throughput per cell for 3,
30 and 60 km/h UE speed.
 Fig. 4.33: Algorithm 2 (WCICI) outperforms algorithm 1
(WOCICI) in terms of average downlink throughput per cell for 3,
30 and 60 km/h UE speed.
 Fig. 4.34: Algorithm 2 (WCICI) outperforms algorithm 1
(WOCICI) in terms of average downlink throughput per cell for 3,
30 and 60 km/h UE speed.
Fig. 4.35 (2SRS UE), Fig. 4.36 (1SRSAS UE), and Fig. 4.37
(1SRSWOAS UE), illustrate User throughput vs. Average served traffic
per cell, SU-MIMO case with 64 BS antenna elements, Full-Buffer
traffic profile, 20 ms sounding periodicity, and 3, 30 and 60 km/h UE
moving speeds.

Figure 4.35: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_64 BS antenna elements @2SRS UE @20ms SRS periodicity
@Full-Buffer

63
Figure 4.36: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_64 BS antenna elements @1SRSAS UE @20ms SRS periodicity
@Full-Buffer

Figure 4.37: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @SU-
MIMO_64 BS antenna elements @1SRSWOAS UE @20ms SRS
periodicity @Full-Buffer
Fig. 4.35, Fig. 4.36, and Fig. 4.37 can be interpreted in the following
way:

64
 Fig. 4.35, Fig. 4.36, and Fig. 4.37: The number of UEs to be
optimally handled decreases with increasing UE speed for a given
user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold for both algorithms
(WCICI & WOCICI).
 Fig. 4.35: For a user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold of 10α
bits/sec/Hz as an example, the system can handle optimally 63 UEs
with algorithm 1 (WOCICI) and 84 UEs with algorithm 2 (WCICI)
for 3 km/h UE speed, and 42 UEs with Algorithm 1 (WOCICI) and
approximately 63 UEs with algorithm 2 (WCICI) for 30 km/h UE
speed, and between 21 and 42 UEs with both algorithms (WCICI &
WOCICI) for 60 km/h UE speed.
 Fig. 4.36: For a user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold of 10α
bits/sec/Hz as an example, the system can handle approximately 63
UEs with both algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI) for 3 km/h UE
speed, and 42 UEs for 30km/h UE speed, and 21 UEs for 60 km/h
UE speed with both algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI).
 Fig. 4.37: For a user throughput-spectral efficiency threshold of 10α
bits/sec/Hz as an example, the system can handle optimally 42 UEs
with Algorithm 1 (WOCICI) and 63 UEs with Algorithm 2
(WCICI) for 3 km/h UE speed, and between 21 and 42 UEs with
both algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI) for 30 and 60 km/h UE
speeds.

65
MU-MIMO (Full-Buffer traffic profile and 64 BS
antennas elements)
The main simulation parameters for MU-MIMO with Full-Buffer traffic
profile and 64 BS antennas elements (BSULA topology: 4x8x2) are given in
Table 4.3.
Table 4.3: Simulation parameters for MU-MIMO with Full-Buffer traffic
profile and 64 BS antennas elements (BSULA topology: 4x8x2)
System bandwidth 20MHz
Frame configuration TDD (2 UL subframes per frame)
Number of DL layers 2
Number of BS antenna
64
elements
Beamforming weights With and without considering ICI
Propagation model 2D SCM Urban macro environment
7 sites x 3 sectors 21 cells, 3GPP case 1 (ISD 500m)
SRS (sounding)
96 PRBs (Full-bandwidth)
bandwidth
SRS (sounding)
[5, 10, 20]
periodicity (ms)
SRS UL antenna 2SRS UE, 1SRSAS UE,
configuration 1SRSWOAS UE
UE speed (km/h) [3, 30, 60]
UE traffic profile Full-Buffer
Scheduling strategy Round Robin
Seeds 10, 10.005 seconds/seed
Number users as
[1,7,14,21,42,63,84,105,210]
iteration variable
Pairing limit 8 Layers (4 UEs with 2 layer each)
Orthogonality factor [0.1, 0.25, 1]

4.3.1. MU-MIMO @64 BS antenna elements @2 SRS UE, UE


speed: 3 km/h, Sounding periodicity: 5 ms
Fig. 4.38 (2SRS UE) illustrates average downlink throughput per cell,
MU-MIMO case with 64 BS antenna elements, Full-Buffer traffic profile, 5
ms sounding periodicity, and 3 km/h UE moving speeds.

66
Figure 4.38: Average downlink throughput/cell @MU-MIMO @3 km/h
@2SRS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer
From Fig. 4.38, the following observations can be made:
 Algorithm 2 (WCICI) outperforms algorithm 1 (WOCICI) in terms
of average downlink throughput per cell for orthogonality factor
(OF) value of 1 and 3 km/h UEs speed up to approximately 120
users. For orthogonality factor (OF) value of 0.25 and 3 km/h UEs
speed, algorithm 2 (WCICI) outperforms algorithm 1 (WOCICI) in
terms of average downlink throughput per cell up to approximately
140 users. For orthogonality factor (OF) value of 0.1 and 3 km/h
UEs speed, algorithm 2 (WCICI) outperforms algorithm
1(WOCICI) in terms of average downlink throughput per cell up to
approximately 170 users.
 In general, a higher value of orthogonality factor (OF) implies a
higher average downlink throughput per cell.
Fig. 4.39 (2SRS UE) illustrates User throughput vs. Average served
traffic per cell, MU-MIMO case with 64 BS antenna elements, Full-Buffer
traffic profile, 5 ms sounding periodicity, and 3 km/h UE moving speeds.

67
Figure 4.39: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @MU-
MIMO @3 km/h @2SRS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer
Fig. 4.39 can be interpreted in the following way:
 In MU-MIMO with 3 km/h UE speed, for a user throughput-
spectral efficiency threshold of 10α bits/sec/Hz as an example, the
system can handle optimally 105 UEs with both algorithms (WCICI
& WOCICI) for orthogonality factor value (OF) of 1.
 The number of UEs to be optimally handled in the system (MU-
MIMO) decreases with increasing UE speed (compare Fig. 4.33 and
Fig. 4.35).
 When the curves start bending, we can consider this point as an
optimal performance of the system with the corresponding number
of users.

4.3.2. MU-MIMO @64 BS antenna elements @2 SRS UE, UE


speed: 30 km/h, Sounding periodicity: 5 ms
Fig. 4.40 (2SRS UE) illustrates average downlink throughput per cell,
MU-MIMO case with 64 BS antenna elements, Full-Buffer traffic profile, 5
ms sounding periodicity, and 30 km/h UE moving speeds.

68
Figure 4.40: Average downlink throughput/cell @MU-MIMO @30 km/h
@2SRS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer
From Fig. 4.40, the following observations can be made:
 Algorithm 2 (WCICI) outperforms algorithm 1(WOCICI) in terms
of average downlink throughput per cell for orthogonality factor
(OF) values of 0.25 and 1 and 30 km/h UEs speed up to
approximately 90 users. For orthogonality factor (OF) value of 0.1
and 30 km/h UEs speed, algorithm 2 (WCICI) outperforms
algorithm 1 (WOCICI) in terms of average downlink throughput per
cell up to approximately 140 users.
 In contrast the 3 km/h case, a higher value of orthogonality factor
(OF) does not always imply a higher average downlink throughput
per cell for both algorithms for 30 km/h UEs speed.
Fig. 4.41 (2 SRS UE) illustrates User throughput vs. Average served
traffic per cell, MU-MIMO case with 64 BS antenna elements, Full-Buffer
traffic profile, 5 ms sounding periodicity, and 30 km/h UE moving speeds.

69
Figure 4.41: User throughput vs. Average served traffic per cell @MU-
MIMO @30 km/h @2SRS UE @5ms SRS periodicity @Full-Buffer
Fig. 4.41 can be interpreted in the following way:
 In MU-MIMO with 30 km/h UE speed, for a user throughput-
spectral efficiency threshold of 10α bits/sec/Hz as an example, the
system can handle optimally 63 UEs with both algorithms (WCICI
& WOCICI) for orthogonality factor value (OF) of 1.
 The number of UEs to be optimally handled in the system (MU-
MIMO) decreases with increasing UE speed (compare Fig. 4.33 and
Fig. 4.35).
 When the curves start bending, we can consider this point as an
optimal performance of the system with the corresponding number
of users.

Comparative analysis
In this section, the overall performance of both algorithms is
summarized based on maximum cell throughput for the following cases:
SU-MIMO (8 BS antenna elements and FTP traffic profile) in Section 4.4.1,
SU-MIMO (64 BS antenna elements and Full-Buffer) in Section 4.4.2, and
SU-MIMO vs. MU-MIMO (64 BS antenna elements and Full-Buffer traffic
profile) in Section 4.4.3.

70
4.4.1. SU-MIMO (8 BS antenna elements and FTP traffic profile)
Table 4.4 summarizes Fig. 4.2, Fig. 4.3, and Fig. 4.4.
Table 4.4: Summary (Fig. 4.2, Fig. 4.3, and Fig. 4.4)
SU-MIMO @8 BS Max_Thpt Max_Thpt Max_Thpt
antenna elements @5 (bps) (bps) (bps)
ms SRS periodicity @3km/h @30km/h @60km/h
@FTP @105users @105users @105users
WOCICI ~16.5ε ~13.5ε ~10.5ε
2SRS UE WCICI ~18ε ~13.5ε ~10.5ε
WOCICI ~16.5ε ~11ε ~10ε
1SRSAS UE WCICI ~17ε ~11ε ~10ε
1SRSWOAS WOCICI ~14ε ~11.5ε ~10.5ε
UE WCICI ~14.5ε ~12ε ~10ε
Table 4.5 summarizes Fig. 4.8, Fig. 4.9, and Fig. 4.10.
Table 4.5: Summary (Fig. 4.8, Fig. 4.9, and Fig. 4.10)
SU-MIMO @8 BS Max_Thpt Max_Thpt Max_Thpt
antenna elements @10 (bps) (bps) (bps)
ms SRS periodicity @3km/h @30km/h @60km/h
@FTP @105users @105users @105users
WOCICI ~16.5ε ~12ε ~10ε
2SRS UE WCICI ~18ε ~12ε ~10ε
WOCICI ~16ε ~10ε ~9.5ε
1SRSAS UE WCICI ~16ε ~10ε ~9.5ε
1SRSWOAS WOCICI ~14ε ~11ε ~10.5ε
UE WCICI ~14.5ε ~11ε ~10ε

71
Table 4.6 summarizes Fig. 4.14, Fig. 4.15, and Fig. 4.16.
Table 4.6: Summary (Fig. 4.14, Fig. 4.15, and Fig. 4.16)
SU-MIMO @8 BS Max_Thpt Max_Thpt Max_Thpt
antenna elements @20 (bps) (bps) (bps)
ms SRS periodicity @3km/h @30km/h @60km/h
@FTP @105users @42users @42users
WOCICI ~16ε ~10.5ε ~10.5ε
2SRS UE WCICI ~17ε ~10.5ε ~9.5ε
WOCICI ~15ε ~10ε ~9.5ε
1SRSAS UE WCICI ~15ε ~10ε ~9.5ε
1SRSWOAS WOCICI ~13.5ε ~11ε ~10.5ε
UE WCICI ~14ε ~10.5ε ~9.5ε
From Table 4.4, Table 4.5, and Table 4.6, the following observations
can be made:
 2 SRS UE offers the best performance in terms of maximum cell
throughput with both algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI) for 5, 10 and
20 ms SRS periodicities and all UE speeds.
 1 SRSAS UE offers the medium performance in terms of maximum
cell throughput with both algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI) for 5, 10
and 20 ms SRS periodicities and pedestrian users (3 km/h UE
speed), but it is not the case for medium (30 km/h) and high (60
km/h) UE speeds where 1 SRSWOAS performs better that 1
SRSAS.
 For pedestrian users (3 km/h UE speed), the effect of SRS
periodicity is negligible. However, for medium (30 km/h) and high
mobility users (60 km/h), the effect of SRS periodicity is somewhat
noticeable.
 There is degradation of maximum cell throughput with increasing
SRS periodicity and UE speed.

72
4.4.2. SU-MIMO (64 BS antenna elements and Full-Buffer traffic
profile)
Table 4.7 summarizes Fig. 4.20, Fig. 4.21, and Fig. 4.22.
Table 4.7: Summary (Fig. 4.20, Fig. 4.21, and Fig. 4.22)
SU-MIMO @64 BS Max_Thpt Max_Thpt Max_Thpt
antenna elements @5 (bps) (bps) (bps)
ms SRS periodicity @3km/h @30km/h @60km/h
@Full-Buffer @63users @63users @63users
WOCICI ~54ε ~45ε ~41ε
2SRS UE WCICI ~84ε ~65ε ~59ε
WOCICI ~54ε ~45ε ~40ε
1SRSAS UE WCICI ~78ε ~54ε ~48ε
1SRSWOAS WOCICI ~47ε ~38ε ~35ε
UE WCICI ~60ε ~47ε ~41ε
Table 4.8 summarizes Fig. 4.26, Fig. 4.27, and Fig. 4.28.
Table 4.8: Summary (Fig. 4.26, Fig. 4.27, and Fig. 4.28)
SU-MIMO @64 BS Max_Thpt Max_Thpt Max_Thpt
antenna elements @10 (bps) (bps) (bps)
ms SRS periodicity @3km/h @30km/h @60km/h
@Full-Buffer @63users @63users @63users
WOCICI ~54ε ~44ε ~40ε
2SRS UE WCICI ~82ε ~60ε ~50ε
WOCICI ~54ε ~42ε ~33ε
1SRSAS UE WCICI ~68ε ~50ε ~39ε
1SRSWOAS WOCICI ~46ε ~36ε ~32ε
UE WCICI ~60ε ~44ε ~36ε

73
Table 4.9 summarizes Fig. 4.32, Fig. 4.33, and Fig. 4.34.
Table 4.9: Summary (Fig. 4.32, Fig. 4.33, and Fig. 4.34)
SU-MIMO @8 BS Max_Thpt Max_Thpt Max_Thpt
antenna elements @20 (bps) (bps) (bps)
ms SRS periodicity @3km/h @30km/h @60km/h
@Full-Buffer @105users @105users @105users
WOCICI ~54ε ~42ε ~34ε
2SRS UE WCICI ~80ε ~52ε ~40ε
WOCICI ~54ε ~35ε ~28ε
1SRSAS UE WCICI ~66ε ~40ε ~30ε
1SRSWOAS WOCICI ~46ε ~34ε ~29ε
UE WCICI ~58ε ~40ε ~31ε
From Table 4.7, Table 4.8 and Table 4.9, the following observations can
be made:
 2 SRS UE offers the best performance in terms of maximum cell
throughput with both algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI) for 5, 10 and
20 ms SRS periodicities and all UE speeds.
 1 SRSAS UE offers the medium performance in terms of maximum
cell throughput with both algorithms (WCICI & WOCICI) for 5 and
10 SRS periodicities and different UE speeds but for 20 ms SRS
periodicity and medium and high UE speeds bot 1 SRSAS and
1SRSWOAS performs almost similarly.
 There is degradation of maximum cell throughput with increasing
SRS periodicity and UE speed.

74
4.4.3. SU-MIMO vs. MU-MIMO (64 BS antenna elements and
Full-Buffer traffic profile)
Table 4.10 summarizes Fig. 4.20, Fig. 4.38, and Fig. 4.40.
Table 4.10: Summary (Fig. 4.20, Fig. 4.38, and Fig. 4.40)
2SRS UE @ Max_Thpt Max_Thpt
64 BS antenna elements (bps) (bps)
@5ms SRS periodicity @3km/h @30km/h
@Full-Buffer @42users @42users
WOCICI ~52ε ~43ε
SU-MIMO
WCICI ~80ε ~63ε
MU-MIMO WOCICI ~65ε ~48ε
@OF=0.1 WCICI ~95ε ~68ε
MU-MIMO WOCICI ~82ε ~54ε
@OF=0.25 WCICI ~125ε ~76ε
MU-MIMO WOCICI ~90ε ~56ε
@OF=1 WCICI ~135ε ~80ε
From Table 4.10, the following observations can be made:
 In MU-MIMO with 64 BS antenna elements, both algorithms offer
higher performance in terms of maximum cell throughput compared
with the same algorithms in SU-MIMO with 64 BS antenna
elements.
 In MU-MIMO, a higher value of orthogonality factor implies higher
cell throughput for both algorithms.
 In general, there is degradation of maximum cell throughput with
increasing UE speed.

75
76
5. Conclusions
The two discussed (in Chapter 4) algorithms for both SU-MIMO and
MU-MIMO are:
 Algorithm 1: based on precoding that does not consider ICI
(WOCICI).
 Algorithm 2: based on precoding that does consider ICI (WCICI).
Based on the obtained results, the following conclusions can be drawn
for both algorithms:

SU-MIMO (FTP)
 WCICI performs better than WOCICI for pedestrian users (3
Km/h), for different SRS periodicities (5, 10 and 20 ms) and SRS
UL antenna configurations. However, and under the specific traffic
profiles used in the simulations, for medium (30 km/h) and high (60
km/h) UE speeds, it is better to use WOCICI since it performs
similarly or better than WCICI.

 The performance of 1 SRSWOAS outperforms 1 SRSAS for


medium and high UE speeds.
 In general, there is degradation of maximum cell throughput with
increasing SRS periodicity and UE speed.

SU-MIMO (Full-Buffer)
 WCICI performs better than WOCICI for pedestrian users (3
Km/h), medium (30 km/h) and high moving speed (60 km/h), for
different SRS periodicities (5, 10 and 20 ms) and SRS UL antenna
configurations.
 The performances of 1 SRSWOAS and 1 SRSAS for high UE speed
are almost the same.
 In general, there is degradation of maximum cell throughput with
increasing SRS periodicity and UE speed.

77
MU-MIMO (Full-Buffer)
 In our simulations, it always best to have an orthogonality factor of
one which means that we pair as many users as possible (maximum
number of UEs can be paired. This is because users are dropped
somewhat sparsely in the simulation area. With higher user loads,
other values of the orthogonality factor might work better.
 WCICI case performs better WOCICI for low and medium load in
the system.
 Similar to the SU-MIMO case, the cell throughput is decreased
when the UE’s speed is increased from 3 to 30 Km/h.

78
6. Future work
As already mentioned, this thesis work has been focusing on the following
main aspects:
 Downlink SU/MU-MIMO
 Transmission mode: TM-8 (2 layers’ transmission)
 2 layers at the UE’s side
 Traffic profile: Full-Buffer
 SRS bandwidth: 96x1 PRBs (Full-bandwidth SRS configuration)
 Scheduler: Round Robin (RR)
More aspects regarding scheduler algorithms for MU-MIMO not yet
investigated include:
 Uplink SU/MU-MIMO
 8 layers’ transmission, i.e. TM-9/10
 1 layer at the UE’ side.
 Sub-bands SRS configuration i.e. 24x4 PRBs
 Other scheduling strategies such as Proportional Fair (PF), Max C/I
and so on.
 Research proposals available in Section 1.4 (Previous related work).

79
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[7] W. Ajib and D. Haccoun, "An overview of scheduling algorithms in
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[10] R. Kwan, C. Leung and J. Zhang, "Proportional Fair Multiuser
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6, pp. 461-464, June 2009.
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evaluation of scheduling algorithms in LTE based 4G networks,"
2015 International Conference on Emerging Technologies (ICET),
Peshawar, 2015, pp. 1-6.
[15] A. Marinčić and D. Šimunić, "Performance evaluation of different
scheduling algorithms in LTE systems," 2016 39th International
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Electronics and Microelectronics (MIPRO), Opatija, 2016, pp. 595-
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[16] C. Johnson, Long Term Evolution in Bullets, second ed., Create
Space Independent Publishing Platform, July 2012.
[17] 3GPP36.211, “Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-
UTRA); Physical channels and modulation” 3GPP, Sophia
Antipolis, Technical Specification 36.211 v13.2.0, August 2016.
[18] 3GPP36.212, “Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-
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Technical Specification 36.212 v13.0.0, January 2016.
[19] 3GPP36.213, “Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-
UTRA); Physical layer procedures” 3GPP, Sophia Antipolis,
Technical Specification 36.213 v13.0.0, May 2016.
[20] E. Dahlman et al., 3G Evolution: HSPA and LTE for Mobile
Broadband, 2nd ed., Academic Press, 2008.
[21] E. Dahlman, S. Parkvall, and J. Sköld, 4G: LTE/LTE Advanced for
Mobile Broadband, 2nd ed., Academic Press, 2014.
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81
[25] 3GPP TR 25.996,” Technical Specification Group Radio Access
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Technical Report 25.996 V9.0.0, December 2009.
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"Downlink Packet Scheduling in LTE Cellular Networks: Key
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Tutorials, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 678-700, Second Quarter 2013.
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in LTE and LTE Advanced: A Tutorial," in IEEE Communications
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[29] 3GPP TR 36.814,” Technical Specification Group Radio Access
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Aspects (Release 9)”, 3GPP, Sophia Antipolis, Technical Report
36.814 V0.4.1, February 2009.

82
Appendices
Appendix 2.A: Uplink-downlink configurations for TDD
radio frame [17]
Downlink-to- Subframe number
Uplink-
Uplink Switch-
Downlink
point periodicity 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
configuration
(ms)

0 5 D S U U U D S U U U

1 5 D S U U D D S U U D

2 5 D S U D D D S U D D

3 10 D S U U U D D D D D

4 10 D S U U D D D D D D

5 10 D S U D D D D D D D

6 5 D S U U U D S U U D

Appendix 2.B: Transmission mode 8 (TM-8) in LTE


(Downlink)
i. Single antenna port transmission
Single antenna port transmission can be realized according to [17] as
follows:
 Only a single layer (υ = 1) and one codeword (q = 0) are available
for transmission on a single antenna port
 Codeword-to-layer-mapping is defined by [17]:
𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟 (0)
𝑥 (0) (𝑖) = 𝑑(0) (𝑖) with 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 = 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏
𝑇 𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟
where𝑥(𝑖) = [𝑥 (0) (𝑖) … 𝑥 (𝜐−1) (𝑖)] , 𝑖 = 0,1, … , 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 − 1 are layers
(𝑞)
onto which modulation symbols 𝑑(𝑞) (0), … , 𝑑(𝑞) (𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 − 1) for

83
𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟
codeword q are mapped, υ is the number of layers, 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 is the number of
(𝑞)
modulation symbols per layer and 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 is the number of modulation
symbols per codeword q.
 Precoding for downlink transmission on a single antenna port is
defined by [17]:
𝑎𝑝 𝑎𝑝 𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟
𝑦 (𝑝) (𝑖) = 𝑥 (0) (𝑖) for 𝑖 = 0,1, … , 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 − 1, 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 = 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 where
the transmission of the physical channel takes place on the following
𝑎𝑝
single antenna ports p ∈ {0,4,5,7,8,11,13} and. 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 is the number of
modulation symbols per antenna port, 𝑥 (0) (𝑖) is the precoder input and
𝑦 (𝑝) (𝑖) is the precoder output for antenna port p.

ii. Transmit Diversity


Downlink transmit diversity must satisfy the following conditions [17]:
 Only one codeword (q = 0) is available
 The number of layers υ is the same as the number of antenna ports P
used for transmission i.e p = 2 when υ = 2 or p = 4 when υ = 4
 Downlink transmit diversity supports two or four antenna ports
which are {0,1} and {0,1,2,3} respectively.
Downlink transmit diversity for 2 antenna ports {0,1} can be
implemented according to [17] as follows:
 Codeword-to-layer mapping for 2 antenna ports {0,1} is defined by
[17]:
(0)
𝑥 (0) (𝑖) = 𝑑(0) (2𝑖) 𝑀
with 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 = 𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏⁄2 where
𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟
{ (1) (0)
𝑥 (𝑖) = 𝑑 (2𝑖 + 1)
𝑇 𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟
𝑥(𝑖) = [𝑥 (0) (𝑖) … 𝑥 (𝜐−1) (𝑖)] , 𝑖 = 0,1, … , 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 − 1 are layers onto
(𝑞)
which modulation symbols 𝑑(𝑞) (0), … , 𝑑(𝑞) (𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 − 1) for codeword q
𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟
are mapped, υ is the number of layers, 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 is the number of modulation
(𝑞)
symbols per layer and 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 is the number of modulation symbols per
codeword q.
 Precoding operation for 2 antenna ports {0,1} is defined by [17]:

84
(0)
𝑦 (0) (2𝑖) 1 0 𝑗 0 𝑅𝑒(𝑥 (𝑖))
(1)
𝑦 (2𝑖) 1 0 −1 0 𝑗 𝑅𝑒(𝑥 (1) (𝑖))
= 2[ ] for
(0)
𝑦 (2𝑖 + 1) √ 0 1 0 𝑗 𝐼𝑚(𝑥 (0) (𝑖))
(1) 1 0 −𝑗 0
[𝑦 (2𝑖 + 1)] [𝐼𝑚(𝑥 (1) (𝑖))]
𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑝 𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟
𝑖 = 0,1, … , 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚b − 1 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 = 2𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 .
𝑇 𝑎𝑝
𝑦(𝑖) = [𝑦 (0) (𝑖) 𝑦 (1) (𝑖)] , 𝑖 = 0,1, … , 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 − 1 is the precoder output
𝑎𝑝
and 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 is the number of modulation symbols per antenna port.

iii. Dual layer Beamforming


2x2 Closed loop downlink spatial multiplexing with 2 codewords and 2
layers for 2 antenna ports {0,1} can be implemented according to [17] as
follows:
 Codeword-to-layer mapping for 2 antenna ports is defined by [17]:
𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟 (0)
x (0) (𝑖) = 𝑑 (0) (𝑖) with 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 = 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 for 1 codeword and 1 layer
𝑥 (0) (𝑖) = 𝑑(0) (𝑖) 𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟 (0) (1)
{ (1) (1)
with 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 = 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 = 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏
𝑥 (𝑖) = 𝑑 (𝑖)
𝑇
for 2 codewords and 2 layers where 𝑥(𝑖) = [𝑥 (0) (𝑖) … 𝑥 (𝜐−1) (𝑖)] , 𝑖 =
𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟
0,1, … , 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 − 1 are layers onto which modulation symbols
(𝑞)
𝑑(𝑞) (0), … , 𝑑(𝑞) (𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 − 1) for codeword q are mapped, υ is the number
𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟 (𝑞)
of layers, 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 is the number of modulation symbols per layer and 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏
is the number of modulation symbols per codeword q.
 Precoding without Cyclic Delay Diversity (CDD)
Without CDD, precoding for spatial multiplexing is defined by [17]:
𝑦 (0) (𝑖)
𝑥 (0) (𝑖)
.
.
. = 𝑊(𝑖) [ ]
.
.
𝑥 (𝜐−1) (𝑖)
[𝑦 (𝑃−1) (𝑖)]
𝑎𝑝 𝑎𝑝 𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟
with 𝑖 = 0,1, … , 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 − 1, 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 = 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 .

85
𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑝
𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 is the number of modulation symbols per layer and 𝑀𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏 is the
number of modulation symbols per antenna port. W(i) is the precoder matrix
of size P x υ and different precoder matrices W(i) can be found in the e-
Node B and the UE where they are configured according to table 1. For dual
layer beamforming, 2 layers are used i.e. υ = 2.
Table 2.B: Precoder matrices for two antenna ports (Downlink spatial
multiplexing) [17]
Codebook index 0 1 2 3
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
1 √2 1 √2 −1 √2 𝑗 √2 −𝑗
Number of 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1
layers υ [ ] [ ] [ ]
2 √2 0 1 2 1 −1 2 𝑗 −𝑗 -
The following steps are need for dual layer beamforming [16]:
 Codewords/UE specific reference signals to resource grid mapping
(codeword 1 and UE specific reference signal for antenna port 7 per
resource grid and codeword 2 and UE specific reference signal for
antenna port 8 per resource grid
 Complex weights calculation from uplink SRS using channel
estimation
 Antenna ports to antenna element mapping: Antenna port 7 is
mapped to +450 polarization antenna elements while antenna port 8
is mapped to -450 polarization antenna elements

86

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